Post Absolution
by Wise Old p1neapple
Summary: "If anyone has any reason why these two should not be married, speak now, or forever hold your peace" to my relief, no one said anything. "You may now-" "These two aren't going to be married," a dark voice said, "Because they're going to die right now"
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic or anyone else. Crazy Muffin Assassin owns Sky the hedgehog, in later chapters. Some of the truth/dare questions may seem out of character, but that's because I just used a truth or dare I-pod app. I tried to tailor the truths and dares the best I could.

Silver's POV

It's been four-and-a-half months since Blaze and I confessed our love for each other, and since then, our love has flourished. We move in together and today we're having a house warming party. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Marine, Cream, Rouge, Shadow, and the Chaotix are all invited. It's 11:30 now and they should arrive by 1:00. We finished cooking and decorating by noon.

"Let's take a break," I said, placing the food on a folding table.

"We should probably get cleaned up before our guests arrive" Blaze replied. "You can shower first" she said, winking at me. We walked up the stairs and parted ways. Blaze walked into our room, and I walked into the bathroom. I pulled off my boots and gloves, flexing my toes. I climbed into the shower and pulled the curtain over. At first the water was cold, but it warmed up quickly. Warm water rushed over my head, flattening my quills against it. I shampooed my quills, conditioned, and shut off the water. I grabbed a towel and wrapped it around my waist. I walked into our room.

"Your turn"

"Silver, did you wash behind your ears?" Blaze teased.

"Are you my mom or my girlfriend?" I replied.

"I'm what ever you want me to be" Blaze said coyly. She stalked out, her tails brushing under my nose, and into the bathroom.

"This is the life," I said to myself. "Living life with the gal I love without Iblis popping up every other day" I put my boots back on, pulled on new gloves and clipped on my bracelets. I reclined on the bed and stared out the window. If I had to do it over, I wouldn't change a thing. I heard a small knock at the door. Blaze was standing there, holding a towel around her dripping wet body.

"Can I get dressed?"

"Sure" I said, getting up and walking out. I propped myself up against the wall as I waited for her. After a few moments she walked out, wearing her trademark purple dress. I cast a glance over to the clock. It's only 12:23.

"We still have thirty five minutes before the guests arrive" Blaze said.

"Huh? What?" I asked, snapping back to attention.

"Your so clueless sometimes" Blaze said, walking over and kissing me. He arms slowly wrapped around me, and she pushed me back into our room. She pushed me down on my back on the bed. Her tongue brushed up against my lips, begging for entrance. I complied, and her tongue swept around my mouth. I started to return the kiss, replacing her tongue with mine. Blaze let out pleasured moans as we continued. Suddenly, she pulled away.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I think I heard the doorbell," she said, allowing me to get up. We ran down the stairs and opened the door to find Sonic, Tails, Amy, Cream, and Marine standing in the doorway.

"Hey, Silv, what's up?" Sonic asked, perpetually grinning.

"Well, you're about twenty minutes early" I said.

"Don't be so stiff, ya pointy bloke" Marine said, walking in. Are all Australians weird, or is it just her?

"C'mon in" I said, walking out of the way. They walked in, Tails in the rear, and he shut the door behind him.

"Silver, Blaze" he nodded.

"So, what're we gonna do?" Amy asked.

"How about a movie?" Blaze suggested.

"Do you have _That Darn Cat_? Tails asked.

"Yup" I said.

"Excellent suggestion, Rotor butt" Marine said, brushing up against him. So we sat down and watched a movie. twenty minutes rolled around rather quickly, and there was another ring from the doorbell. This time, Shadow, Knuckles, Rouge, and the Chaotix were there. They walked in, Charmy and Vector bickering as always.

"Well, everyone's here. As I'm sure you guys know, Blaze and I have recently moved in together," I said, putting my hand on her shoulder. Blaze put her head on my shoulder and gazed up at me with her beautiful golden eyes. I felt my heart melt, looking at her. I wanted to hold her and show her that I love her, but other people are here, and Shadow's looking around like one would when surveying a war zone. His deep red eyes washed over me and narrowed ever so slightly. I hate how he does that. You can never tell what he's thinking.

"I'm bored!" Charmy whined. "How bout we play a game?"

"A game?" Creams eyes lit up. "Like what?"

"I dunno," he buzzed.

"Maybe we could play truth or dare" Rouge suggested mock-innocently.

"Sounds like fun" I said.

Blaze's POV

"I'll go get a bottle," I said, walking into the other room. I came back with a glass coke bottle to find everyone arranged in a circle, with a space next to Silver for me. Silver started by spinning the bottle. It landed on Shadow.

"What would you prefer to give away, your phone or your TV?" Silver asked him.

"I don't have a TV, so I'll go with that" he said. Shadow then spun the bottle. This time it landed on Knuckles.

"I pick dare" he said.

"I dare you to draw a face on your hand, and until your next turn you can only talk through your hand" Knuckles got a marker and drew a poorly conceived face on his hand. Knuckles spun the bottle.

"Oi! It landed on me!" Marine exclaimed. "I'm gonna pick dare"

"I dare you to sit in the closet until your next turn, with Tails"

"You heard the bloke! Into the closet!" Marine commanded. The minute the closet door closed, Marine pressed her lips to Tails in a passionate kiss. Since Marine was 'indisposed' I spun the bottle. It landed on Silver.

"I pick truth," he said immediately.

"Ok, name an embarrassing crush you've had"

"Oh, tough one. I'm gonna have to say Blaze the cat"

"Not much of a crush anymore" I said, smiling at him. He spun the bottle again. It came to a stop pointing at Amy.

"Gimme a dare" Amy said.

"I dare you to let Charmy style your hair" Amy groaned and Charmy giggled madly. He rushed over and started putting rubber bands in her hair. After approximately 13 seconds, Charmy pulled away to examine his work. It looked like her hair went through a shredder and then was rubbed with several balloons. Amy gave me a death glare second only to Shadow. Amy spun the bottle rather viciously, which landed on Silver. Oh, Silver's in trouble.

"I…I p-pick dare" Silver stuttered.

"I dare you to let Blaze give you a facial with honey," she said, and evil glint in her eye. Silver and I walked into the kitchen, and I got a jar of honey from the fridge.

"Lay down and hold still" I commanded him. He did as he was told and laid down on the counter top. "Close your eyes" I said. I scooped out a spoonful of honey and plopped it on his cheek. He winced a little at how cold the honey was, but he got used to it. With the back of the spoon I spread the glob around his face.

"Are you done yet?" he asked, his voice slightly muffled by the honey.

"No. This is too much fun" I responded, scooping more onto his face.

"Ok, I think you're done" Silver said, grabbing my hand and sitting up. Together we walked back into the living room, receiving laughter along the way.

"Why Silver, you look good enough to eat," Amy said.

"Ok, Amy, that's over stepping it" I said. Silver felt around blindly, looking for the bottle.

"Here it is, Silver," I said, handing it to him.

"I knew that" he mumbled before spinning it. It landed on Cream.

"I pick truth" her innocent voice rang.

"Do you sleep with anything?" Silver asked.

"Just Cheese," she said. Cream spun the bottle, which landed on Tails.

Silver's POV

"Guess the means Tails and Marine can come out of the closet," I said walking over and opening the door. Tails and Marine tumbled out in a tangled heap, both panting and sweating. "It's your turn Tails"

"I pick truth," he said immediately.

"What is one thing you've done that you never want to be caught doing?" Tails cast a glance to Marine, then the closet. "Ok, I think that answers the question" I said. Tails nervously spun the bottle, and it landed on Knuckles.

"I pick dare" Knuckles scoffed, trying to show he was not afraid.

"Every time you hear a loud noise you have to bark like a dog" Knuckles nodded and just spun the bottle. This time it landed on Shadow.

"I pick dare" he said, in monotone un-interest.

"Get another player to draw a face on your stomach"

"What the hell? I'm not doing that," Shadow growled.

"Then go sit in the corner," Knuckles commanded. Ignoring him, Shadow spun the bottle.

Blaze's POV

The bottle pointed at me. "I pick truth"

"Who's the most important person in your life?" Shadow asked.

"That's easy; it's Silver," I purred, brushing against Silver. Silver smiled back. I cast a glance over towards Marine, who was acting odd. Without warning, she jumped Tails. Amy put her hand over Cream's eyes. She pinned him to the ground while her tongue ravaged his mouth. At first, he struggled and tried to push her off. As Marine deepened the kiss, Tails returned it.

"Uh…Marine?" I asked uncertainly.

"Mmmf…what?" she asked, pulling away from Tails.

"Could you tone it down a bit?" I asked, blushing slightly.

"Oi, Pointy, ya got somthin on yer face" Marine noticed.

"Yes, it's called honey" Silver said.

"Ya idiot! Honey goes in yer mouth"

Silver's POV

"Look, I know you're Australian, but can't you speak English?"

"Hey dude, like, how's this?" Marine said in a very bad American accent. Charmy giggled at her. Marine gave me a dirty look and went back to lip locking with Tails.

"What d'you guys wanna do now?" I asked.

"How bout we get stuff to eat?" Sonic suggested.

"Sure, Blaze and I cooked some food. It's in the kitchen. I'm gonna go wash this off" I said gesturing to the honey on my face. The others walking into the kitchen while I walked up into the bathroom. I tried tugging on the dried honey, but it was really stuck to my face.

"Amy, I am gonna kill you" I muttered.

"Maybe I can help" a feminine voice said from behind me. I nearly jumped out of my fur.

"Blaze? You scared the crap outta me," I gasped.

"Hold still" she walked over and extended her tongue.

"Blaze, what're you going to-" she licked the side of my face. I shivered at her touch. Her tongue found it's way to my mouth, and our tongues danced together. She put her left hand on the side of my face, and without warning, ripped the dried honey off my face. "Ow! What was that for?" I demanded.

"I was just helping" Blaze said, innocently kissing my cheek. Downstairs I heard Knuckles bark three times like a Chihuahua. I just rubbed my cheek to relieve the searing pain the honey had caused. We walked downstairs and into the kitchen. Everyone was sitting around and eating, sans Shadow, who was reclining on the couch.

Blaze's POV

"Hey, Shadow" I said sitting next to him.

"Blaze? What do you want?" he said, aloof as always.

"Aren't you hungry?" I asked casually.

"No"

"C'mon, have something to eat" I pushed. He gave me a frustrated look, but got up. He browsed the food before deciding on grapes. He took a cluster and went back over to the couch. I mean, come on, we're all friends here, so he doesn't need to be so anti-social. I heard cheering from the other room. I heard Silver groan the second we saw what was going on. Our guests had found our "wine cellar". Judging by their behavior, I'd say they were a couple drinks in. Someone's poor judgment *cough Sonic cough* allowed Marine to drink, and now she was 'off her face' as the Australians say. Now she was up on the table singing loudly, and dancing about.

Silver's POV

"Ok, I think that's enough for you" I said, psychically lifting Marine off the table and setting her down in the living room. Blaze grabbed the bottle of wine out of her hands and took it to another room.

"Gimme tha' back, ya *hic*" Marine protested. She started to tip over. "Why isevefythin sosfwirly?" she slurred, falling on the couch next to Shadow.

"It's ok Marine, just sleep" I patted her head. She passed out with head in Shadow's lap. Shadow looked up at me, with eyes burning, like cigarettes.

"What the hell?" he asked.

"She's drunk"

"That makes sense," he agreed. I left the living room, and went to the kitchen. Blaze had herself a glass and was talking and laughing with everyone else with the exception of Tails, Cream, Charmy, and Espio.

"Hey Silver. Want a drink?" she asked, holding out the bottle, her speech slightly slurred.

"Well, maybe a little"

Approximately three-and a-half-drinks later…

"Why is the wine gone?" Amy asked, staring at the two empty bottles.

"We drank it all, Ames" Sonic said, swirling his finger on the counter top.

"But why is the wine gone?" I glanced over at the clock. It's getting late; it's almost 12:30. 

"You guys should probably head out" I said, desperately trying to keep my eyes open.

"Your probably right" Vector said. He seemed to be the least affected by the alcohol. The Chaotix left right away. The others took a bit longer. Tails picked up an unconscious, intoxicated Marine and carried her out the door. I assumed Tails would keep her at his place until she was sober. In Marine's case, that might be a while. Sonic, Amy, Cream, Knuckles, and rouge left next. Shadow left last. He thanked us for inviting him, and left abruptly afterward. Blaze turned to me. Her movements were shaky, and her cheeks were flushed. She held onto my shoulder as we walked upstairs. We lay down together in bed, not bothering to talk off our clothes. Her lips planted themselves on mine, in a hot, wet kiss. It lasted for several minutes before we broke away, exhausted.

"Goodnight, my love" Blaze said, before falling asleep next to me.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Hey, guys. Glad to say, the revised version is doing better by a multiple of ten (or eleven) anyways I'd just like to give my thanks to Crazy Muffin Assassin, friend, proof-reader, and kick ass writer in general.

Silver's POV

I woke up staring at the ceiling. I had a killer headache. With a groan, I turned over on my side. Blaze was lying next to me. Her chest rose and fell as she slept. I leaned over and kissed her lightly on the lips. Her eyelids fluttered gently, then opened, revealing their golden irises. A smile spread across her face when she saw me.

"Good morning, Silver" she yawned, putting her arm around my neck.

"Good morning Beautiful" I said, stretching. She planted a kiss on my cheek. It's another one off those days where it's great to be alive. "Blaze, could you hand me the Aspirin? I've got a wicked headache"

"Sure" she purred, tossing me the plastic bottle. I swallowed three pills and replaced the cap.

"Thanks" I said, handing the bottle back.

"What should we do today?"

"Maybe we could go on a date"

"Ok, sounds like fun" we climbed out of bed and walked downstairs hand in hand. I cooked breakfast for the both of us. Buttermilk pancakes, probably the only thing I can cook. After a delicious breakfast of pancakes and orange juice, we started to clean up around the house. It wasn't as dirty as it might have been, so the cleaning went quickly. The empty wine bottles were rinsed out, and left to dry. The streamers were taken down, and the dishes were washed. Man, the cleanup was easier than preparing for the party. Afterwards, we got cleaned up and dressed. While Blaze was showering, I was left with about ten minutes to myself. I opened the drawer in the kitchen counter. Aside from the contents one might expect, there was a small velvet box. I pulled it out and looked at it. Inside was a ring. White gold with a diamond set in it and words engraved in it. 'I have to do it soon' I told myself. 'Or Blaze might find it, or I'll lose my nerve' Tonight I decided. At Sunset Hill.

"Hey Silver" Blaze said behind me.

"Blaze!" I screamed, whirling around, hiding the ring behind me back. "You scared the crap out off me," I said, putting my hand over my chest.

"You look guilty" she said quietly, slinking over to me.

"D-do I?" I asked, starting to sweat a little. I swallowed nervously.

"What are you hiding?" she whispered, getting right next to me. I swiftly slipped the ring back into the drawer and closing it before Blaze noticed. "I'm-I'm not hiding anything," I said, trying to stay calm. Her golden eyes studied me, but gave up before too long.

"The shower's open" she said, before walking out of the room. I walked up the flight of stairs to the second floor and into the bathroom. Maybe a hot shower will help calm me down. The water was still warm when I turned the knob. The warm water dulled my senses as it cascaded down around me. I felt my muscles relax and loosen; I was rather tense before. My fur and quills were flattened to my skin. I twisted the knob back, shutting the water off. The mirror had fogged up; so I wiped it down to see my reflection. I slicked my quills back like one would in the 1950's.

"Looking good, Silver" I wrapped my towel around my waist and walked into our room. Blaze was there, lying down on the bed.

"Where are we gonna go, Silver?" She asked.

"I was thinking Sunset Hill," I said.

"Sunset Hill? That's so romantic" Blaze simpered.

"Anything for you" I said, lying down next to her. "I was thinking we could have a picnic"

"Silver, you're so sweet" She said, kissing my cheek. We walked downstairs and packed the basket. We packed a delicious looking fruit salad and tuna salad sandwiches. We grabbed a blanket we could lay on and we headed out for Sunset Hill. It felt great to be running again. Feeling the wind in my hair and the rush of running the shuttle loops. But as we were running, my clumsiness got the better of me; I wasn't paying attention to where I was going and almost ran headlong into a familiar black hedgehog.

"Hey, Shadow, what's up?" I asked, screeching to a halt.

"Silver?" he sighed. "Go away"

"What's wrong, Shadow?" Blaze asked.

Blaze's POV

"Can you leave me alone?" Shadow grumbled.

"Why are you gloomier than usual?"

"Why do you care?" he retorted, his intense red eyes narrowing.

"You're my friend and I care about my friends"

"Well, if you care, leave me alone"

"Isn't there any way we can help?" I asked.

"No" I wanted to say more, but I figured we would only make things worse if we helped. Reluctantly, we walked away and continued on our date.

"We have to help him," I said, once he was out of earshot.

Shadow's POV

Why do they have to be so helpful all the time? God, if they get any worse they'll be as bad as faker, or his little sidekick. It's not like they could help if they wanted to. It'll be the 56th anniversary of the day Maria died next week. But I'm not gonna tell them that.

Blaze's POV

"I was thinking just the same thing," Silver said with a smile. Sunset Hill was only a short jog from here. Even at three in the afternoon, Sunset Hill was beautiful. Silver spread out the blanket on a small stretch of land. We sat down and just talked for a while. Small, insignificant things to kill time. Then we watched the clouds. There was something magical about watching clouds. Maybe it was the way they crawled across the sky. Or maybe it was the colour they took when the sun starts to set. The sun started to sink in the sky at around six p.m. Finally we unpacked the food. The fruit salad lived up to our expectations and the sandwiches were divine. Then Silver started acting weird. He was being a bit shy, and just timid in general.

"What's wrong, Silver?" I asked, putting my hand on his shoulder.

"It's nothing" he responded, looking away.

"Silver you can tell me" I said, moving my hand to the side of his cheek.

"You're absolutely right" he said, a look of determination glowing in his golden eyes. He got on one knee and reached into the basket, digging around for something. I felt my breath leave my body when he pulled out a small velvet box.

"Silver, what are you…?" I started.

"Hello, Silver, _Blazey_" an accented voice exclaimed. The both of us whipped around to see Tails and Marine standing by us, hand in hand.

"What are you two doing here?" I asked, hiding my disappointment caused by their interruption.

"We were just walking through the Sunset Hills when we saw you, and we wanted to say hi" Tails said. Then he noticed the ring and his eyes widened a three-fold. "A-are w-we int-inter-rupting?"

"Just a bit" Silver said politely.

"Eh, whazzat?" Marine asked. She too noticed the ring. "Are you proposin' to Blazey?"

"Yes, and we would like to be left alone"

"Don't be so bodgy. Just ask her. Get it over with!"

"Tails, is Marine sober yet?" I asked.

He shrugged "I've got no idea. C'mon, Marine, let's leave them to themselves" and with that, he guided Marine away.

Silver's POV

"Now, where were we?"

Blaze smiled and spoke softly "You were asking me to marry you"

"And?"

"Yes. I'll marry you, Silver I love you" Blaze said, advancing on me, laying kisses all over my face. I imagine I must be about as red as Knuckles by now. "I can't tell you how long I've waited for you to say that" Blaze whispered seductively in my ear. My heart felt like it was melting in my chest and I started returning the kisses Blaze was sending.

"Come on Blaze, let's go home," I said, picking her up bridal style along with the basket. I took off and flew us home in a matter of minutes, kissing the entire trip home. Upon landing we broke the kiss to stop for air. I opened the door via my boot, and carried my fiancée inside. I took the staircase two steps at a time. I've never loved her more than I do now. Her golden-yellow eyes gazed up at me in an indescribable sort of emotion. Her lilac fur brushed against my skin. It was incredibly soft, like a kittens', and even smelled like lilacs. Her lips were soft and lush. So giving and forthcoming, I wanted to kiss her and never break away. It was the combination of these qualities and more the produces these feelings for her. And the best part was, I could tell she felt the same way about me. I don't know how, but in my heart I knew. I love her.

"Is it too early to bring up kids?" Blaze asked. I froze, almost dropped her, and almost fell down the stairs myself. "Don't worry Silver, I'm only kidding," she laughed. Somehow, I wasn't reassured.

Other Person's POV

"Very interesting turn of events" the figure said to himself. The dark figure looked painfully out of place in somewhere as naturally serine and beautiful as the Sunset Hill. He was unnaturally cold and exuded a sub-zero aura. The parts of Sunset Hill that immediately surrounded him was dulled in colour and had withered. It was as if he could kill things by being near them. He let out a mirthless, crazed laugh. "Maybe I'll crash the wedding" the figure disappeared, seeping into the shadows that the palm trees cast.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Again, I would like to thank a couple of people. I would like to thank Shadowsonlygirl for an sorting out a slight problem with the characters. I would like to than Crazy muffin assassin for editorial help and the like. Lastly, I would like to thank my readers for…well, reading.

Blaze's POV

The last thing I remember before drifting off was snuggling with Silver. Whatever did I do to deserve someone like Silver? His body exerted a comforting warmth that made me drowsy. The thought that we would soon be husband and wife made my heart flutter with joy. But the minute I fell asleep, I wish I hadn't.

Silver's POV

In my dream Blaze and I had gotten into a fight. After the fact, she stormed out. My dream-self wasn't doing anything until it started raining. I quickly grabbed an umbrella and ran outside. I searched for any sign that Blaze had been there. Finally, after what seemed like hours, I found her. She was crying, but something else was wrong. Her movements were jerky and strained. She stumbled over to me and looked in my eyes.

"Silver…help" she rasped. Her hand grasped at her stomach, then pulled away. Blood. She fell to her knees, revealing a figure behind her, shrouded in the darkness of the storm. The darkness bent towards him as if it were following him. A forked tongue of lighting illuminated the sky and lifted the shadows that veiled his identity. He looked like Shadow, except for minor details. Shadow had red fur, this entity had grayish blue, Shadow had crimson eyes, and this person had green, with slit, reptilian pupils. It was looking at Mephiles the dark. His sinister gaze turned on me, and his intensions were immediately clear. I'm next. He did nothing for a second, then lunged. His bloodstained claws gripped my throat and squeezed. I awoke in a cold sweat, clutching my throat. I looked over at Blaze, who was still sleeping peacefully next to me. I climbed out of bed, still half asleep, and walked over to the bathroom. I turned the handle on the faucet. I collected the fountain of cool water that gushed out in my hands. The cool water sloshed over my face, calming me down considerably after that horrible nightmare. I carefully climbed back into bed, so as to not disturb Blaze's sleep. Suddenly she cried out.

"Silver! Don't leave me! Please don't go!" I sat bolt upright and whipped around over to her. Tears were forming rivers down her face and she was thrashing in her sleep. My heart ached to see her in pain like this.

"Blaze, wake up! You're dreaming!" I pleaded, grabbing her shoulders. It was unsettling to hear how shrill my voice had become. Regardless, her beautiful golden eyes, now swamped with tears, shot open and her arms flew around me, pulling me up against her. She buried her face in my shoulder and sobbed, horrible heartbroken sobbing.

"Sil…ver" she sobbed. Her breath came out shallow and quick. "Mephiles is back…he…he killed you"

"Don't worry Blaze, I'm not going anywhere," I said, as comfortingly as possible in my current state of mind. Her sobbing started to quiet as she calmed down.

"Thank you, Silver" she kissed my lightly on the cheek.

"You're going to be my wife. That makes it my job to protect you"

"That's so sweet" Blaze wiped her eyes with the palm of her hand. My eyes wandered over the alarm clock. It was almost three in the morning.

"It's really late" I yawned, "Let's go back to bed" shortly afterward, we fell asleep in each other's embrace.

Blaze's POV

We woke up late the nest morning, almost 10:30. We were lying right up against each other. Our foreheads were pressed together and my hand rested on the chest. He is so cute, even in his sleep. Sometimes he talks in his sleep. One time he was arguing with himself, in French.

"Good morning, Blaze" he said, finally waking up.

"Good morning, my love" I purred.

"Do you think we should tell the others?" he asked.

"That we're engaged? Knowing Marine, she probably blabbed all about it and fabricated romantic details"

"Probably" he sighed, getting out of bed. I stretched and followed him downstairs. He was cooking eggs in a skillet. The doorbell rang loudly, snapping me to attention.

"I got it," I said, walking to the other room. But when I opened the door, I almost passed out from shock. There was a silver and black-streaked hedgehog standing in the doorway with a sarcastic expression to boot.

"Sky?" I gasped.

"Where's my brother?" She asked, barely hidden annoyance in her voice. "Where's Silver?"

An annoyed expression of my own surfaced. "He's inside. What do you want?" she accidentally on purpose bumped into my shoulder.

Silver's POV

"Silver, we have a visitor," Blaze called. A mental warning went off. She sounded annoyed. That could only mean a few things.

"Is it Marine again?" I asked. That raccoon is always popping up at the most inopportune of times.

"No. Come see for yourself" I walked into the living room and almost had a heart attack.

"Sky? What're you doing here?" the hedgehog smiled.

"Can't I visit my own brother?" Sky asked innocently. "What's up with you guys?" Blaze and I looked at each other, then at Sky. Sky shot Blaze a dirty look.

"We'll tell you later" we said together. I then proceeded to call everyone and invite them over for the big news. That's the problem with having supersonic, hyperactive friends; they all show up inside of ten minutes. Everyone made themselves comfortable in our living room on the couches. Everyone was edgy and suspicious around Sky, save for Marine. Marine walked right over and started to pester her with a river of questions. She was shut up when Tails and the Chaotix forcibly dragged her away.

Shadow's POV

"What did you call us here for?" I addressed Silver, folding my arms. "And who is that?" I nodded at the silver and black female hedgehog sitting next to him.

"Yeah, Blazey, why're we here?" Marine piped up.

"You're here for a couple reasons. The first is that I would like to introduce my sister, Sky" he motioned to the hedgehog next to him. I took notice of how blue her eyes were. They looked just like the summer sky. I found myself getting lost in their depths. Apparently, she's a fraternal twin with Silver and he just neglected telling us. He introduced everyone, going around our circle of friends, but I swear she was looking at me the whole time.

"And then the other reason; Blaze and I are getting married" there was a collective "What?" but Sky took it harder than the rest of us.

"You know how much I hate that bimbo! You expect me to be ok with you getting married?" she shouted.

"Sky, you are over reacting. Please calm down" Silver begged.

"Sky, you really need to calm down," Blaze added. "Silver and I decided to spend the rest of our lives with each other, and you need to suck it up"

"Bite me" Sky retorted. Then she turned to me. "Silver, you're my brother and I love you, but why _her?_"

"Please stop arguing!" Cream pleaded, but her pleas we ignored.

"I love arguing! Can I argue too?" Charmy buzzed. Charmy joined the fray and started arguing unnoticed amongst us with himself. This is getting ridiculous.

"Shut up!" Knuckles shouted above the noise. Immediately everyone stopped talking.

Silver's POV

"This is stupid, I'm outta here!" Sky exclaimed. She slammed the door behind her as she stormed out.

"Nice sister" Rouge commented sarcastically.

"It's a process" I replied.

"Maybe I can talk some sense into her," Shadow suggested. This is the first time he'd spoken since we broke the news to everyone.

Sonic laughed. "You being sensible? That's a good one, shad. I think I'd better do the talking"

"Says the one with the emotional range of a four year old child"

"Says the one who can't let go of a dead person" Shadow burst forward, slamming Sonic into the wall.

"You ever talk badly about Maria, and I will end you" he snarled. "How would you feel if Fox-boy died in your arms?" Sonic tried hard not to show his fear, but it was rather obvious. Tails looked a bit worried at Shadow's statement. Shadow pushed him away and turned to me.

"Does Sky have anywhere to stay?"

"Yeah, there's a guest room upstairs"

"Maybe you guys should go now" Blaze suggested, barely concealed annoyance in her voice.

"Wait, miss Blaze! Who is the best man? And the bride's maids? And the flower girl? And the-" Cream asked rather enthusiastically.

"We'll decide later" I intervened, sensing Blaze's stress. "We'll tell you tomorrow" everyone filed out mumbling with excitement and wonder. Shadow informed us that he would stop by tomorrow morning. Even Knuckles and the Chaotix seemed excited.

Blaze's POV

"Finally, we're alone" I purred. We held each other like we were never going to let go. Even so, I couldn't help but feel a twinge of unrest. Who _was_ the best man going to be? And what about all the other slots that need to be filled?

"Where'd everyone go?" Sky asked, catching us off guard. Silver tumbled backwards, pulling me on top of him. I regained my composure and struggled not to flip out at her. She glared at me, which clearly said _stay away from my brother_. God, this had better be worth the trouble. Wait, what am I saying? This is Silver! Of course it'll be worth it.

"The guest room is upstairs" Silver informed Sky. She gave one last reproachful look, mainly at me, before walking away.

"_Now _we're finally alone" Silver corrected, caressing my cheek. All my worries dissolved with the kiss he gave me. It will definitely be worth the wait.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: I want to thank Crazy Muffin Assassin again for moral support and proofreading. I would also like to thank my readers. Just saying here, a review wouldn't hurt. I'm not complaining but it would be nice.

Sky's POV

Last. Night. Sucked. I did not get one wink of sleep because I stayed up worrying about all the despicable things Blaze might be doing to him in the next room. So for twelve hours I rocked back and forth in bed in the fetal position. Despite all the disturbing thoughts racing through my head, I was hungry. Silver, what am I going to do with you? Apparently, _I_ inherited out father's intelligence. I had to force myself to walk downstairs and force myself to go see them. They were sitting next to each other at the kitchen table, eating breakfast.

"Good morning" Silver greeted warmly. I said nothing as I took a seat across from him. I just stared at the table, contemplating what might have transpired last night.

"Have fun last night?" I asked Blaze. Blaze just glared dryly at me.

"Sky, stop. I hate it when you two fight" Silver intervened. "Would you like something to eat?"

"Sure" I said. He walked over to the fridge and tossed me a blueberry muffin. Yum, my favorite.

"And Sky?"

"Yeah?"

"Shadow's coming by; he wanted to talk to you"

"Who?"

"The black hedgehog from last night"

"Oh, that guy" I wolfed down my muffin and figured I'd go outside. I love looking at the sky and watching the clouds roll by. I was so eager to go outside that I failed to notice the person standing on the doorstep. I bumped full into them. His fur was soft, but his body was firm. I fell on my rear; he didn't even stumble. I was once again reminded of how short I was; he was a whole head taller than me. His fur was black as night with crimson highlights. My eyes worked up his body to his face. He wore an angry expression. His eyes were incredible. They were deep, both in hue and emotion. His face might have been despondent, but his eyes showed a slight glimmer of caring and kindness. If he hadn't been so attractive, he would have been terrifying. Wait, no, he's still terrifying, but I wasn't gonna tell _him_ that.

"Sky, I presume?" his voice was deep and rich. I could only nod in response. My heart was beating like a snare drum, loud and fast. My hands were unsteady and sweaty.

"Come with me. Can you keep up?" again, I could only nod.

"We'll see" he smirked. A challenge! What does he take me for? Little does he realize that I'm faster than both Silver _and _Blaze.

Shadow's POV

I was in the mood for a little competition. I skated off at about sixty mph, an easy jog for me. I looked back, expecting to see her trailing me, desperately trying to catch up, but she wasn't there. When I reallocated my attention, she was running backwards in front of me, keeping up easily. I smiled to myself, and put on more speed. This is going to be interesting. Finally, we came to a stop in the middle of the Emerald forest. I sat on the low branch of an oak tree.

"Why are we stopping here?" she asked. Her innocent blue eyes explored mine. I still couldn't decide what shade of blue her eyes were. They ranged from cobalt to sky blue. I decided on sky blue; it was the most prominent

"You and I are going to talk. I know you're not from around here; do you have anywhere to stay?"

"I'm with Silver and Blaze, but…"

"…It would be awkward staying up at night, listening to the happy couple…expressing themselves"

"Ugh…"

"But, you can stay with me. There is a vacancy of sorts at my place"

Sky's POV

"If we're going to…co-habitat, then maybe we should get to know each other," Whoops. That just kinda slipped out.

"Ah hem… well, Silver and I are fraternal twins. We used to live in Crisis city. We spent years fighting Iblis until it was sealed away. Other than that, I'm smart and good with machines. Unlike Silver, I never inherited the psychokinesis. Instead I have power over electricity. Not much to tell, right?"

"My back story is much longer; why don't you make yourself comfortable?" he motioned for me to sit next to him on the branch.

"sixty three years ago I was born, on the Space Colony ARK. I was intended to be nothing more than a research experiment; the ultimate life form…"

Silver's POV

The doorbell rang. Again. At the door were Amy and Cream, looking extremely excited. I cringed.

"Who is it?" Blaze called from the kitchen.

"Amy and Cream" I hollered back. Even here, her sigh was audible. She clomped her way over to the door and began answering questions, even before they were voiced.

"Sky is the maid of honor, Sonic is the best man, you and Rouge are bride's maids" she directed at Amy. "Shadow, Knuckles and Tails are groomsmen, Charmy is the ring bearer, and you, Cream, are the flower girl. We are in the middle of finding a priest, florist and a band. Happy?" Amy and Cream were both stunned by her outburst. Cream recovered first with a gleeful 'yay'.

"If you're stressed out, Blaze, maybe I could help" Amy offered. Blaze cast a distressed glance at me. We had just stared planning and deciding on the preparations earlier today, and we were already stressed out.

"We'll get back to you on that" I answered. Amy and Cream bid us a cheerful farewell and departed. Great, now back to finding a band, priest, and florist.

Shadow's POV

"…And then I destroyed the Black Comet from the Eclipse Cannon on the ARK"

"Wow, that's amazing" Sky murmured, her gorgeous blue eyes trained on me. There was just something indescribable about her that I found so appealing. Maybe it's how her blue eyes sparkle with excitement at my story, or the way she laughed at the Chaotix's numerous antics during our campaign against Metal Sonic. Only then did I realize how close we were sitting. Our thighs brushed against each other's. Our gaze's traveled from the contact up to each other's eyes.

Sky's POV

What was he doing? Our eyes met and we just looked at each other. I blushed, but refused to back down. Then we moved in closer, and our lips were about to touch. At the last second he pulled away.

"Shadow, what're you-"

"Sky, I'm sorry. I can't. I'm sorry," he said, turning away from me. His voice became regretful and sad.

"Shadow, what aren't you telling me?" I asked, trying to put authority in my voice. I put my hands on the sides of his face and turned it towards me.

"It's nothing" he lied. See, like Silver, I've got above average endowments. I can read peoples minds, only if their weak minded, or open minded. Unfortunately, Shadow's neither.

"Shadow, if you don't tell me-" the look in his eyes turned harsh.

"It's nothing" his voice felt like a slap in the face.

"I'm sure Maria wouldn't think so," a dark voice chided. We both looked in the direction of the voice. The source of said voice was the most horrific figure I could've imagined. He was the spitting image of Shadow, but on him, Shadow's features looked evil and sadistic. Standing in the shadows of the trees was Mephiles the Dark. But how is this possible? Silver and Blaze sealed Iblis away a long time ago.

"Mephiles, how are you-"

"Here?" he interjected. "I am a shadow, cast from the light. The light can be extinguished, but the shadow will always remain"

Shadow's POV

My every instinct was telling me to take Sky and run, but I had to hear him out first.

"How do you know about Maria?" I asked. I knew I couldn't tell Sky about Maria. Nobody likes hearing about old relationships, especially when they end badly.

"My dear Shadow, I am omnipotent, I can travel through time, to the past and future. Your past is no exception" slowly I started to back away. I had to take Sky and run. He's not nearly as fast as me, so I should have no trouble outrunning him.

"Sky" I whispered. "We need to get out of here. He's dangerous. I can't protect you"

"Oh, I have no intention of hurting you. Yet" Mephiles told us.

"This bastard has been nothing but trouble for me and Silver. We can take him!"

"No, Sky, no!" but it was too late; she charge at Mephiles. Against my better judgment, I followed. I aimed a punch at his face. His clawed hand grabbed my wrist and twisted. In one fluent motion, he threw me. I might be a bit more durable than the average mobian, but I could feel my ribs crack when I slammed into the tree. Sharp pain ricocheted through my chest, and a small trickle of blood dripped from where I bit my lip. Even the tree sustained physical damage. For what seemed like hours, I could only lie on the ground and try to force air into my lungs. The whole horrible seen unfolded before my eyes. I could see it coming the whole time. Mephiles kicked at her, she stopped his leg with her arm. She punched at him, he grabbed her fist. I forced myself to stand and run to her. I have to protect her. If she dies, or is injured, Silver will try to kick my ass, which will prove to be hazardous to his health. His hand shot forward, claws raking across her unprotected stomach. She stumbled backwards clutching at her wounds and gasping. She was bleeding heavily. I caught her just before she touched the ground. Mephiles cackled madly, and seeped back into the shadows on the ground.

"Damn it! Hold on tight!" I swore. I picked Sky up bridal style and ran off. This whole vicious scene brought up unwelcome memories. Maria dying right before me. Her pushing me into the escape pod. Her final words. The only person I ever loved forever gone. Then I snapped back to reality. Her blood was radiating from three good-sized gashes on her stomach. She was bleeding to the extent that it was starting soak in to my fur. Great, another innocent person will die on my account. No, if I say she'll die, then she will die. She will _not_ die while I'm here. Sky looked up at me. My heart broke just from the way her eyes looked. They looked dull and they lost their usual beautiful luster. Fierce anger and determination took over, fueling my adrenaline. I ran god only knows how fast, making it to Silver's place in seven seconds. I opened the door via my shoe without even a hint of hesitation.

"Silver! Blaze! Get a basin of water and gauze! It's Sky!" I shouted, running up the staircase to the guest room. Clamor rose from below as Silver and Blaze rushed around. I pulled of Sky's jacket and amulet and set them on the nightstand. Then I looked at myself; I don't recall having red highlights on my torso. The slamming of the door marked the arrival of Silver and Blaze. Silver very nearly dropped the basin when he saw the condition Sky was in.

"I thought you said you were going to talk!" Silver accused.

"I will answer your questions later. Give me the damn cloth" I walked back to Sky and grabbed the hem of her torn shirt. As I pulled it up her hand stopped mine.

"We…don't know…each other…that well…Shadow…" Sky rasped. Every word meant a substantial part of consciousness that was drained from her.

"If I don't stop the bleeding you will die," I said, harsher than necessary. I immediately regretted it. She got a distant, glassy look in her eyes. Quickly I wiped the now drying blood away from the wounds. She gripped the bed sheets in pain and arched her back. Her face was beaded with sweat and deathly pale. I wiped the last of the blood away from the wounds. The bleeding was slowing ever so slightly. Afterwards I wrapped layer upon layer of gauze over the wounds to sop up further bled blood. Her blue eyes gave a silent 'thank you'.

"It would be beneficial if you slept" I suggested. The _thank you _vanished. Instead, she gave me a look like _you can't be serious_, but reluctantly, she fell asleep.

"Will she be ok?" Silver asked, wringing his hands.

"She should. She just grazed her superior mesenteric artery"

"How did she do that?" Blaze inquired. At first I just stood there, contemplating the best way to break the bad news. I figured it would be best if I just said it.

"It's Mephiles," I said finally. "He's returned"

"W-what?" Blaze sputtered. "How is this possible?" Maybe I should have been subtler.

"He said some crap about extinguishing the light that leaves the shadow to remain" Silver put two and two together.

"So in getting rid of Iblis we got rid of Iblis, and only Iblis?" he groaned. I nodded.

"Shadow, are you injured?" Blaze asked. My hand subconsciously rubbed my rib cage.

"No, I'm fine" maybe I'll go for a run. That usually takes my mind off of things.

Silver's POV

"This cannot be happening! We worked so hard to get rid of him!" I exclaimed.

"There has to be a reasonable explanation. We'll just ask Sky when she wakes up" Immediately I felt more calm. Blaze always knows just what to do.

"I guess you're right" I smiled.

"You guess? Ye of little faith" she lightly punched my arm.

Sky's POV

I was in pain, and if possible, more tired than when I went to sleep. How does that make any sense? I slept through the whole night. I'm still at Silver and Blaze's. I sat up in bed, immediately wishing I hadn't. I was surprised to find I was wrapped in bandages and my shirt was torn and covered in dried blood. Oh, yeah, Mephiles slashed me yesterday and now I'm an invalid, stuck in bed. Ugh. Maybe Shadow'll stop by. Only after several eventful hours of staring at the ceiling fan did he stop by. He looked sad and regretful, just like when he was about to kiss me.

"Good morning Shadow," I said as cheerfully as I could muster.

"Good morning" he said, his voice barely a whisper.

"What's going on?" I asked. He walked to the bedside before talking.

"Unwrap the bandages. I might be able to help," he whispered. Obediently, I unwrapped the bandages, exposing the gashes. Shadow put his hand to my stomach and closed his eyes. I winced slightly; his hands were like ice.

"Shadow, what are you going to do?" I asked meekly.

"Chaos control" he whispered. An intense green glow enveloped his hand and the gashes. My stomach felt weird; like being heated, cooled, stretched and squeezed, followed by a slight tingling, like when your foot falls asleep. I didn't dare look down for fear of what I might see. When I looked down the gashed had healed significantly. They were still there, but they looked as if a month of bed rest and doing nothing had taken place in a matter of seconds.

"What did you do?" I questioned, completely bewildered.

"Chaos control. I sped up time on the injured area so it would heal"

"That's so sweet" I purred. "I don't get why everyone thinks so poorly of you" his expression lit up momentarily, like striking a match, then dropping it in water.

I frowned. "Tell me what's bothering you right _now_"

"It's nothing," he repeated.

"Shadow, I care about you. _Spill it_" a small beeping noise rang out.

"Thank god" he whispered.

"What?"

"It's G.U.N., they need me for a mission"

"I'm so bored! Can I come?"

"It'll be dangerous and you're still injured" Shadow pointed out.

"But what about you? Will you be ok?" a small smile crept it's way onto his face in a mischievous sort of way.

"Don't worry; I can't die" seizing the opportunity, I planted a kiss on his cheek.

"You'd better not" his hand touched his cheek where my lips made contact, like he couldn't believe what I'd done. Definitely reluctant, he exited the room.

Shadow's POV

My scowl returned when I left her room. Damn G.U.N. They always interrupt at all the wrong times. With that thought still fresh in my mind, I took out the green chaos emerald and chaos controlled over to G.U.N. H.Q. Maybe they'll give me something short and easy for a change.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: I would like to thank Crazy muffin assassin for editorial assistance.

Shadow's POV

A dark green blur shot through the forest. That green blur was me. The green you ask? Damn military uniform. It's too loose and too tight in all the wrong places. Granted it was not designed with a hedgehog in mind, but still. I hate G.U.N. They make me wear clothes, carry small, useless guns, and assign me menial missions. The uniform had more pockets than I know what to do with. If the uniform wasn't bad enough, I had to wear a helmet. There was an infrared scope over one eye and a bunch of other "Helpful" gadgets like thermal imaging and crap like it. In short, I don't need all this crap. All I need is a gun, an AK-47 maybe. Something automatic. The mission wasn't much better. G.U.N. relented and gave me guard duty. Damn government twisting everything around so either way you choose you're screwed. We received an anonymous tip that chaos emeralds, currently in G.U.N.'s possession, are going to be stolen. They sent me and 10 other guards to stand watch. The soldiers were already at the compound, totting AK-47s. They get AK-47s, I get a pistol.

"Lance corporal Shadow" they saluted. I silently saluted back and approached the compound. The scanner at the door confirmed that I was who I claimed to be via retina scan. The door opened with a pneumatic hiss. Inside, protected by several gattling gun turrets and a Plexiglas wall, were three chaos emeralds; yellow, purple and blue. Now I just have to sit and wait. Damn.

Trouble was to be expected, but it took its sweet time getting here. After roughly two hours of tossing the green chaos emerald up, and catching it, something _finally_ happened. There was a scream and the chattering of guns being fired. For five seconds it went on, and then stopped just as suddenly. The metal doors were repulsed and skidded on the floor in front of me. Through the cloud of smoke that was produced, bullets of purple energy sped forth, striking each turret. Upon contact, the turrets rusted and instantaneously fell apart. Afterwards, an unfortunately familiar figure walked through the haze. Mephiles.

"Hello Shadow. Fancy meeting you here" his eerie calm was really starting to irk me.

"Leave, Mephiles, before I kill you" I growled.

"That's so cute. You think that you can actually kill me"

"I can and I will"

"I suppose your answer is obvious, but you can always step off and let me take the emeralds. Should you do so I won't hurt you," I merely sneered in response. We walked around each other in a circle. Quick as lightning, we struck at each other. Silently, I cursed G.U.N. This damn uniform is constricting my movement. Mephiles got in a lucky punch and I tumbled to the floor. I reached for my chaos emerald and scrambled to stand up.

"Chaos control!" I shouted, in an attempt to turn the tide of the fight. A horrible realization dawned on me. Mephiles was holding the yellow emerald and had also initiated Chaos control. How the hell did he find time to get the emerald? A blue time vortex sprung forth from the emeralds, sucking at me. And worse, the suction was becoming stronger with every passing second. I could feel myself slipping towards it.

"No! Not now!" I shouted, barely able to here myself above the noise. The ground was pulled out from underneath my feet and I tumbled clumsily through time. In the confusion, I lost my grip on the green emerald. I cursed again. Now the seventh emerald was in some random time, past, present or future. Finally I reached Mephiles' pre-determined destination. My head slammed down on the black volcanic rock. Despite my best effort, my consciousness slipped away from me, filling my field of vision with a black void. I'm going to be out for a while.

Blaze's POV

The world is screwed. My mother was right. When I was but a kitten, my mother always told me about what it would be like to get married. She told me about the initial shock from the proposal and the rush of affection that follows it. And then when you're engaged it's not that much different until a few days later. The day you wake up and you think: "Oh my god. I'm getting married" like you can run around the world and back, like you can do anything. I always thought that was just my mother being weird, but today, that was exactly how I felt. I woke up and I looked over at Silver. My heart started beating faster, and feelings of extreme, un-diluted, passion stirred in my chest. _Maybe I'll give him something to wake up to,_ I thought.

Silver's POV

I woke up abruptly when I felt something slithering around the inside of my mouth. I opened one eye, then the other. Blaze was lying on top of me, in her underwear, with her tongue in my mouth. Subconsciously, I started to kiss her back.

"Good morning, sexy" Blaze cooed.

Then I snapped back to consciousness. "Blaze, what are you doing?"

"You're so cute when you're clueless. I'm appreciating my fiancé" she said flirtaisously. I tried to move, but she pinned me back down. She took my face in her hands and kissed me again. There was a small thud coming from outside. Sky was there, gagging and pretending to puke.

"Ok, Blaze, not now" I said.

"Oh, I know, playing hard to get"

"N-no, that's not at all what I'm-" but she cut me off with her tongue.

"Blaze, stop! Sky is right there!" I pointed desperately to Sky, who now resembled a deer in a car's headlights. Blaze got up and slammed to door angrily in her face. When she turned around, the dreamy smile returned to her face.

"You know, Silver, we don't have to wait 'til our wedding night" Blaze pointed out, shooting a nasty look back at the door. She dug her thumbs under her bra straps and walked back in a seductive fashion. For every step she took near me, I took one away, scooting around the edge of the room.

"But, don't you think it would be more fulfilling if we had s-sex when we're married?" I stammered.

"Oh, but there will be other people here then. Do you really want Sonic or someone interrupting us?" she asked, closing the distance between us.

"Ok, well, I'll go make some breakfast, you just-" and I sprinted out the door. Unfortunately, Sky was still standing near the door. We collided and landed on the floor.

"Ow, Silver! Watch where you're going!" she screamed.

"Sorry! Wait, were you listening to us?" I asked suspiciously.

"No" she lied, turning every so slightly red, then smiling. "It's ok. I'll make sure Sonic and the others don't _interrupt_" now it was my turn to turn red.

"If Blaze finds out you heard that, she'll kill you"

"Life goes on" Sky shrugged. I helped her up and we walked down to the kitchen. Today, I was in the mood for cereal. Sky got a muffin. (Surprise, surprise). Sky sat next to me at the table. Blaze came downstairs shortly after, now wearing a bathrobe.

"Hey, Sky?" I asked, in between bites of cereal.

"Yeah?"

"Do you know any good bands? We need one for the wedding"

"Well, I know a-" but she was interrupted by the doorbell. I got up to see who was visiting. I swear, if it's Marine… Upon answering the door, I was relieved to find it was not Marine, but Rouge. Then I noticed the expression on her face. She looked sad. Her usually smugly confident eyes were glassy and she was frowning. Aside from that, she was panting like she'd just ran 10 miles and was dressed in G.U.N. combat gear.

"Rouge? What's wrong?" I asked.

"It's Shadow. He's gone M.I.A." Rouge panted. Sky's eyes widened and the muffin slipped from her grip.

"What do you mean he's missing in action?" Sky blurted.

"He's gone. The compound he was stationed at was attacked and razed. Soldiers dead, emeralds stolen, but no sign of Shadow's body"

"But, he can't… He told me not to worry" Sky stammered.

"Shadow was my partner! How do you think I feel?" Rouge yelled.

"He told me he'd be fine! He told me he couldn't die!" Sky shouted back.

"I've known Shadow a lot longer than you! How do you think I felt when he fell of the ARK? Everyone just gave up on him! Everyone told me to move on! I've known him since he stepped out of that stasis pod and you've just popped up in the last few days!"

"I don't care how long you've known him! He's my friend too! I care about him" Sky shouted, her hands were trembling with small sparks of electricity coursing around her fingers. And then she ran, stray bolts of electricity scorching the walls. She ran off upstairs to her room, slamming to door.

"Go away Rouge" I said simply, closing to door and following after Sky. As I walked my foot kicked something. I looked down to see what it was I had kicked. The object lying on the ground was most intriguing and very familiar. The green chaos emerald. _What the hell? _I thought. _I thought Shadow had this one._ A small grin crept its way onto my face. Shadow's still alive. How, though, I don't know, but he wouldn't leave this emerald behind.

"Silver, what was all that about?" Blaze asked, slightly un-nerved. I honestly can't blame her; I was feeling a bit un-nerved myself.

"Shadow's M.I.A. and the compound he was guarding was destroyed"

"Oh my god. Is that why Sky's…" I nodded. I walked up to the closed door of Sky's temporary room. I put an ear to the door: completely silent.

"Sky? Can I come in?" I asked.

"Go away Silver," she said. I took it as a "yes". I tried to twist the handle before I realized it was locked.

"Sky…" Damn. The one time I really need to say something, I'm at a loss for words and locked out. Time for a little innovation.

Sky's POV

I should be used to this by now. I've seen many people die back when we lived in Crisis City. Some of them were friends. Why is this any different? Was it the kiss? My lips tingled from the contact they had made with Shadow's cheek the other day. I walked over to the window and opened it. The cool March breeze caressed my face. I usually like March, but now I don't. It's frustrating to feel so terrible, but not know why. So I stood there watching clouds roll by and listening to the frustrated swearing of Silver, who can't figure out how to open the lock. At least some things never change.

Silver's POV

I stood there for at least 20 minutes with a screwdriver and a paperclip trying to pick the lock.

"Damn it!" I swore when the screwdriver slipped and slashed the greater part of my finger. After applying first aid and pacing around, another idea struck me. Maybe I could fly in through the window. With child-like excitement, I ran outside and around to the back. Sure enough Sky was watching the clouds roll by. Then she heard something and walked away from the window. I smirked; piece of cake.

Sky's POV

Something's wrong. Silver's not swearing anymore. I cautiously approached the door. As far as I could tell, he wasn't there. I breathed a sigh of relief. He finally gave up. Maybe I'll go talk to him later.

"Sky" Silver said from behind me. I turned swiftly in disbelief.

"How did you get in here?" I demanded.

"Unimportant" he replied. "Sit down. We have to talk"

Silver's POV

"Leave me _alone_, Silver" Sky said.

"No, it's important and about Shadow"

"He's dead, Silver. He saved my life and I never really got to thank him. He promised me he would be fine" she whispered, the last sentence quieter than the rest. I smiled sympathetically.

"And that is where you are wrong. He's not dead and even if he were, it wouldn't have been lowly thieves that did him in," I said.

"Silver, please don't tease me. Not now" tears started brimming in her eyes.

"I'm not. Look" I pulled out the green chaos emerald for her to see. The brilliant green gem glinted mischievously in the sunlight that flickered in from the window. She almost tripped over herself running to get a better look at it.

"Shadow had that when he left…" she murmured.

"Yes, and I found it downstairs"

"But he teleported from outside my room"

"Exactly"

"So he's not dead?" she said excitedly. I shook my head. Sky hugged me fiercely. I returned the hug. It wasn't like a passionate hug, but more like a brotherly/sisterly hug.

"Thank you, Silver. Heh, Resourceful Silver makes a rare, always appreciated appearance" Sky commented.

"I have my moments"

"Wait, if he's not dead, then where is he?" Pfft, moment gone.

"The appropriate question is _when _is he," I corrected.

"But how are we going to find Shadow? We could-"

"Sky, you're still injured. I have complete faith in Shadow" Sky's gaze dropped. "Don't worry, Sky; he'll be fine"

Blaze's POV

Silver is so kind. He's such a nice older brother. I watched the whole scene unfold from outside. I couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy for her, despite how much I can't stand her. I do hope Shadow is ok though. If _any_ of our friends were to die, I don't know what I'd do. Shadow had better get back all right.

A/N: Where did Mephiles send Shadow to? What does Mephiles want with the chaos emeralds? What is the rest of Team Sonic gonna say when they hear what happened? Is Marine sober yet? Find out whenever I post the next chapter.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Don't really have anything to say. Thanks go to Crazy Muffin Assassin.

Shadow's POV

I woke up expecting to see my house. Instead, I woke up with a stick poking my face and two blurred figures standing over me.

"What the hell are you doing?" I demanded. The two figures jumped back at my outburst, and one of them screamed. My vision began to clear up and the figures began to gain detail. Oh, hell. The two figures standing above me were none other than Silver and Blaze. I groaned. I bet it was Silver who screamed. All the buildings around us were burned and destroyed. There were pools of molten lava all over the place. Mephiles sent me to Crisis City.

"Hey, are you new around here?" Silver asked. "I've never seen you before" I forgot how annoying Silver's voice was before he went through puberty.

"Sure" I said. I was still wearing my helmet, so my identity was concealed.

"What's you're name?" Silver asked, extending a hand to help me up.

"I'm lance-" I thought it best to give my rank and some phony name just in case, but someone else interrupted.

"Silver! He's back! Iblis popped up again!" Sky shouted running up next to me.

"Hold that thought Lance. We gotta go!"

"Wait, my name's not-" but they already started running. If I ever get back to the past…or is it the future? The future of the past? If I _ever_ get back to my time, I'm going to slap Silver. Who pokes a sleeping person with a stick? Who names their kid Lance? What am I gonna do now? There's not a whole lot to do in Crisis City. Maybe I can help fight Iblis. Yeah, that would give me something productive to do. I caught up to them in a matter of seconds.

"Hey! Who's this?" Sky asked. "I've never seen him around here before"

"His name is Lance" Silver answered. "Why don't you tell us about yourself? Where are you from?" I thought for a second. If I give them actual information, I could change the future. Not just in Crisis City, but my future too.

"Oh, you don't want to know about me" I responded.

"Well, then why are you _here _of all places?" Blaze asked. "It sucks here"

_Really? I never noticed. _"I didn't have much of a choice"

"Well, I'm Silver" he said, extending his gloved hand. Hesitantly I shook it.

"And I'm Blaze" Blaze said.

"And I'm-" Sky started.

"No one cares" Blaze interjected.

"As I was saying, I'm Sky" she gave the lavender cat a venom filled glare.

"Stop arguing; we're here" Silver said, screeching to a halt. I have a newfound admiration for Silver, Blaze, and Sky. Iblis is huge. He's like a 200 foot tall half molten gargoyle, or the giant monster Gandalf fought in Lord of the Rings. Its roar was so deafening and forceful, I was blown back by it. Silver and Blaze dove right in. They were either stupid or brave, and I'm betting Silver was the former. Iblis hurled rocks 20 feet across at them like they were pebbles. Silver stopped them with psychokinesis and threw them back. The way he and Blaze fought as a team was almost legendary. Blaze held the fiery monsters that Iblis created at bay while Silver hurled rock after rock at Iblis itself. That left Sky and myself to fight the other spawn created. It was pretty easy. A punch here, a roundhouse there, and they all dissipated promptly afterward. But for every one that went down, two more came in its place. Sky was on fire, so to speak. I never knew she could fight like that. Then things started going wrong again. Iblis swatted Silver away; he crashed into a ruined building. Blaze ran off after him. Apparently, Iblis viewed Sky as a bigger threat as opposed to me, so he went after her.

"Sky! Look out!" I shouted, pointing to Iblis. He took his garage-sized fist and brought it down. Sky swiftly ran out of the way, narrowly avoiding it. She ran around the plaza weaving around spawn and other obstacles. My heart skipped a beat. Her shoe caught on debris and she stumbled. Iblis seemed to grin as he raised his massive fist.

"Damn it!" this is becoming a pattern. I took off running, my skates aiding my effort. Iblis started to bring his hand down again. I dove, as one would sliding into third base. I wrapped my arms around her, dragging her out of the way when we collided. We rolled person over person until coming to stop, me on top of her. Now, don't be a pervert; I was using my body as a shield. The impact Iblis had made sent all kinds of debris shooting around. Most of it just bounced harmlessly of my back. Some of it hurt. I could feel a few shards pierce the combat jacket and slice up my back. I winced slightly, but sucked it up. Painfully, I stood. Now to take care of Iblis. I brought my hand to my wrist and twisted off the golden ring that resided there. After slipping it off, I did the same to my other hand. I was rewarded with a surge of power. The rush I get when I take off my rings is still euphoric. I really only take them off as a last resort.

Now, I gotta be quick about this. If I expend too much energy, I could pass out, possibly for days. If you've never been to Crisis City, take it from me; it's not a place you want to stay for any longer than you have to. In the spirit of not wanting to be stuck here, I charged. In retrospect, it probably wasn't the brightest idea, charging Iblis in a frontal assault. Iblis threw a rock at me the size of a van. Being as fast as I am, I dodged it without a problem. Iblis must've realized that he's not the best when it comes to hitting things with rocks, so he decided to smash me with his fist. Good. I took a moment to stand still and give him an easy target. I saw a twinge of confusion in Iblis' dull eye when he noticed I was no longer evading his attacks. I guess even a giant monster can be at least a little intelligent, so he decided to smash me and be over with it. Just as I planned. He swung his arm, putting as much force behind his fist as he could. I just ran out of the collision course. His fist smashed clear through the volcanic rock, but when Iblis tried to pull it out, he found that it would not be so easy. Taking the opportunity, I clambered up onto his arm and ran over to his head. Once there, I tensed. If I'm to subdue Iblis, massive, destructive power is called for. Usually, a chaos emerald is required, but apparently, this is the exception to the rule. I reached deep down and summoned forth all the chaos energy I could muster. I started to glow. It was subtle at first, but the more energy I collected the more prominent it became.

And then I released it "Chaos blast!" I shouted. A violent red light formed. First, it started at the tips of my fingers. Then, it spread out, wider and wider. The bigger it got, the brighter and more intense it became. Iblis let out a pained roar as piece by piece he was ripped apart by the blast. After several moments, Iblis began to fall apart. Finally, the remaining pieces of Iblis collapsed into the pit, mixing in with its molten content.

"Whoa…" Sky gasped, when I walked back over to her. "What did you say your name was?"

Back in the past…

Silver's POV

"_What_ happened to Shadow?" Sonic said in complete and utter disbelief.

"We think he was sent to another time," I repeated. Everyone had found out from Rouge about Shadow disappearance, and that we were the last people to see him.

"Not to cast dispersions, but do you have any proof?" Tails asked, looking equally worried as everyone else. I then produced the green chaos emerald.

"Ok, so you have a chaos emerald. What of it?" Knuckles said, emotionally detached. He seemed to be the only one not particularly worried. Charmy, on the other hand, was flipping out. Apparently Shadow was his hero and he started a fan club for him.

"Shadow had this when he left, and he teleported from outside Sky's room. I found this here after Rouge left yesterday"

"So, what are you saying?" Rouge asked. She sounded distressed and on-edge.

"Shadow's not dead" no one seemed particularly surprised by this. He did, after all, survive a fall to earth from the ARK while in space. Rouge looked like she was about to cry. Her usually immaculate blue eyes were watery and glass like. I'd never seen her display emotion, aside from flirting with Knuckles and being excited about stealing jewels.

Shadow's POV

"Lance" I responded, mentally cursing Silver while doing so. "Are you ok? Are you hurt?" I clipped my rings back on. I used up too much energy; I'm starting to feel a little lightheaded.

"I think I twisted my ankle," she groaned. I rolled my eyes. This is just keeps getting better and better. I picked her up and ran off. Sky lead me through the distorted landscape that was Crisis City to her home. It wasn't much; even my place was nicer than this. It was the basement of a collapsed building complex. According to the signs, we were now under what was Casinopolis in the late Station Square. I thought Station Square was impossible to navigate before. I set her down on a futon and took off her shoe. Her ankle was red and slightly swollen. I'll be damned. G.U.N. is actually useful for something. They taught battlefield medicine and how to treat several minor injuries, including sprained ankles. I laid her down on her back and elevated her ankle above her chest. Next, I need some ice, to minimize swelling and bruising. Where am I supposed to find ice in _Crisis City_? The whole place is one huge freakin' fire! Ok, skip the ice; I need a splint. I took a piece of wood and put it to her leg. I ripped off the left sleeve of my jacket and tore it into strips. Tightly, but not so as to cut off circulation, I tied the board above and below the injured area.

"Thanks," Sky said brightly. Despite being covered in ash and soot, and having small cuts and bruises all over, she still managed to be beautiful. No, I can't think like that now. I'm in _her_ past and _my _future. I can't afford to be distracted. Then I might _actually _die. "Where did you learn to fight like that?"

"The military" it continued on like this for about an hour, her asking questions, and me just answering with as few words as possible.

"Hey, Silver should be back by now" Sky pointed out. Almost as if by coincidence, the pair of them walked in. They had small cuts and streaks of ashes in their fur. Blaze's cloths had small tears in many places. They limped over and crashed next to us.

"Gee, Sky thanks for helping" Blaze said sarcastically.

"Stuff it, princess" Sky retorted. Blaze's fist clenched. She hates being reminded of her royal bloodline.

"Sky, Blaze, not now" Silver spoke up, obviously exhausted.

"It's not my fault Sky ditched us" Blaze said.

"I did not!" Sky shouted. "I would be a pancake right now if Lance hadn't stepped in and saved me!"

"My point exactly; you're always getting in the way," Blaze said coldly. It's surprising how cold a pyrokinetic like her can be. Sky struggled to get up on her injured ankle, but buckled and fell.

"Arguing helps nothing," I said, supporting Sky. "She was in trouble, and I saved her. Deal with it" Blaze scowled at me, but figured I wasn't worth fighting with. After all, I just saved them the trouble of defeating Iblis, if only for a short while.

"Thanks" Silver smiled. Apparently, Silver is the mellow person here.

"I'm gonna turn in" Blaze yawned. It just occurred to me in might be around nighttime; I just never noticed with all the fires burning. Well, that and the endless blanket of black clouds that never shows any sign of any sort of precipitation and blot out the sun. Silver and Blaze fell asleep first followed by Sky. I didn't really feel comfortable sleeping in unfamiliar territory, especially with Iblis destroying everything in sight. And if my memory serves, Mephiles will pop up to send Silver and Blaze to the past. I'm going to need to find a way home, and soon. Mephiles could be wreaking havoc in the past and I would have no say in the matter. The sooner I get out of here, the better.

A/N: How is Shadow going to get back to the past? And in the past, what trouble is Mephiles causing?


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Sorry I haven't updated in a while. School life, Family life, life on and then life in a band collided and the outcome was…unsavory. I might be a while before I update again. Thanks to Crazy Muffin Assassin and to Lord Kelvin for editorial assistance and insightful reviewing, respectively.

Silver's POV

I lay in bed next to Blaze, contemplating all that had happened. First, Mephiles came after Sky. Then, Shadow. Who's next? Me? Blaze? And why is he collecting the chaos emeralds? So many questions, so few answers. I haven't been getting much sleep lately. It's three in the morning and I haven't gotten a wink of sleep. I've been too busy worrying. Not about Shadow, I know he'll be fine. I'm more worried about Rouge and Charmy. Rouge looked like she was on the verge of breaking down and Charmy, who is normally bouncing off the walls, was quiet. And if that wasn't enough, my birthday is coming up in a couple days. On March twenty-seventh, Sky and I will turn eighteen. Today's the twenty-fifth, so they're still two days until then. There are still preparations that need to be arranged for the wedding.

Shadow's POV

I hate Crisis City. The whole place is filled with noise. Not the kind of noise you'd expect in any normal metropolis, but the creaking and groaning of iron beams, encouraging you to worry about whether or not the whole thing is going to collapse on top of you. Naturally, I didn't catch a wink of sleep. Early the next morning, or at least, I think it was morning, while Sky was sleeping, I heard Silver and Blaze talking amongst themselves.

"C'mon Blaze, we have to go while they're still sleeping" Silver whispered. I could see their dimly lit figures moving about.

"Are you sure it's a good idea? I don't trust him. He seems double-binding" Blaze whispered back.

"Blaze, it's the only way to save the future. We made a pact to do whatever it takes, and he says he knows what to do" she reluctantly agreed, and silently sneaking out. A light bulb went off in my head. If the pair of them were sneaking off to "save the future" then time travel is involved. And here in Crisis City, I'm guessing no one really knows how to use the chaos emeralds, let alone have enough for a jump through time of the magnitude to get to the Day of Disaster. Who else can travel effortlessly through time? Mephiles. Not only that, but if I time this correctly, I might be able to retrieve the chaos emeralds. I'll have to be sneaky. I really don't want another confrontation with Mephiles unless absolutely necessary. I followed them out into the ruin of the former city. I wonder how Sky would react to this. How would she react to her brother and his best friend disappearing without a trace, abandoning her in Crisis City? I shook my head to dispel these thoughts. If I get distracted, I might lose Silver's trail.

Silver and Blaze had taken off running. I almost lost them. I had to follow through an intricate maze of streets and alleys. _How do they do this?_ About halfway through, I tripped, narrowly avoiding sharp, rusted metal. Is it really necessary for them to take the most dangerous and treacherous path to get to their destination? Why can't Silver just fly them over and avoid possible injury? Of course, now that I bring it up, that's more or less what Silver does. To span the gap between two buildings Silver creates a makeshift bridge of rubble. Silver and Blaze crossed the bridge without a second thought, I, however, know how careless Silver can sometimes be, so I was less than enthusiastic to trust his craftsmanship. Silver and Blaze had already started down the side of the fallen building, so I guess I have no choice. I lightly set one foot on the structure to make sure it was sturdy. It was. But when I started to run across it, it started to break apart. Running out of options, I jumped. My hand caught the edge of the next building over. Agonizingly slowly, I pulled myself up. The dynamic duo were already three buildings away by now. When I get back, the first thing I'm going to do is slap Silver. Silver and Blaze came to a stop at another run down building. _Great, more decrepit buildings_. The building wasn't quite as ruined as the others. _What makes this building so special?_ With militaristic stealth, I crept along the edge of the structure, inching towards the door. Inside, Silver and Blaze were conversing with a third voice. Mephiles, no doubt. They mentioned something about the day of destruction, Iblis trigger, and a blue hedgehog. _Of course. Mephiles can't just go and kill Faker himself._ I groaned.

"Wait, I think I heard something!" Blaze voice called out.

"What? Where?" Silver asked, momentarily losing his composure. "Is it Sky? Did she find us?"

"It's nothing to worry about" Mephiles assured them. "I'll take care of it later"

"If you're sure… Well, see you in the past" from that point, I assume Mephiles sent Silver and Blaze to the past. Now's my chance. On the count of three.

One…

Two…

Back in the past…

Blaze's POV

"Ok, so, we have the priest, the flowers, the band, the location, and the food. All we need now are the clothes and the date"

"Ok" Silver said. "So, we'll meet the others at the mall to get fitted, right?"

"Exactly" I said.

"Right, we should probably leave soon" the mall wasn't that far from here. Our house is right on the outskirts of Station Square. A quick run should be sufficient to get there. We left within ten minutes. From there we ran alongside each other into the city. The city was huge. There were more people here than I've ever seen anywhere else. At the mall, there was a veritable sea of cars; at least 1000 were parked outside. We agreed that we would all meet inside, just past the entrance. Sure enough, when we walked into the huge structure known as the mall, they were all there. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Cream, Marine, Rouge, and the Chaotix. Sky was already here too. She went early because she couldn't bear the thought of spending any more time near me than absolutely necessary, but I'm not complaining. She was standing next to Tails on the far side, away from the others. If she gets anymore anti-social, I might mistake her for Shadow.

Silver's POV

"Ok, guys, this is the part where we split up. Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, and the Chaotix, you guys are coming with me. Everyone else will be going with Blaze" Sky immediately groaned. I sighed. This seems to be happening a lot.

"See you when you get back" Blaze said in my ear, kissing my cheek.

"I can hardly wait" I replied affectionately. We went our separate ways. Blaze and the girls went off the left, almost dragging Sky. The guys and I went in the opposite direction, gazing longingly after them. After walking past a couple of stores, we came to one that sells suites. Upon walking in, we were greeted by a competent looking gentleman.

"Hello, sirs, my name is Howard, how are you all doing today?" he asked. He appeared to be a raccoon, or something like that. He had tawny coloured fur and a darker patch encircling his eyes.

"We're fine, thanks," I answered. "Could we possibly rent tuxedos?"

"Of course, sir. What, may I ask, is the occasion?"

"Wedding" I responded simply. His eyes lit up. Strange. I couldn't tell quite what colour they were. They changed with the light. At one angle they looked green, at another blue.

"Excellent. Come right this way" he walked off, motioning for us to follow. We weaved in between racks of clothing and other customers. "Here we are," he said, stopping abruptly. "So, how many do you need?"

"Seven" I responded. That means one for Sonic, Shadow, Knuckles, Tails, Espio, Charmy, and me. Vector had decided to wait outside, as he was not needed.

"My math might be a bit rusty, but they're only six of you" Howard said, slightly confused. Crap, that's right. Shadow's still not here.

"Our friend is indisposed" Sonic stepped in.

"That's too bad. Ok, just tell me what size you need and then you can try them on. If they're to you're liking, good. If not, you can try something else," we all informed him of our sizes (or tried to, as none of us wear clothes on a regular basis). It was like that music montage scene in the warehouse in Big Fat Liar when Jason and Kaylee were trying on all the costumes. It actually turned out pretty well. Mine fit perfectly. Sonic said his was horrible, but that's just him hating clothes. Knuckles' tux looked a bit too big, so he had to try again. Tails was having difficulty putting the pants on with his tails. Espio was neutral about the whole thing. Charmy was excited, despite his previous silence due to Shadow's absence. For a while, I almost didn't notice him. Now, he was bouncing up and down, giggling, and making a racket in general. We got a second suit in Sonic's size because he and Shadow about the same height. Finally, when we were all situated, we paid the raccoon at the register and left with our purchases in plastic bags. We met up with Vector outside, who was just listening to his headphones. I don't mind clothes, but I don't want to have to wear them everyday. I wonder how the girls are doing so far.

Blaze's POV

This is getting nowhere fast. I've tried on at least twenty dresses, but none of them feel natural. They're all overly eccentric and gaudy. We'd already decided on what the bride's maids would wear. They were going to wear lilac coloured strapless dresses with off white pumps. They had already gotten their dresses, and now we were waiting on me.

"How's this one?" Rouge asked, holding up another dress. It looked promising. It was strapless, had almost no back, and had a rose pattern near the left shoulder. But when I tried it on, it just didn't feel right. It felt kind of itchy and just weird. When I told her as much, she started to get annoyed. Thankfully, Amy and Cream were understanding. Marine was keeping Sky company, who was standing outside, talking. One last dress. That's all I'm gonna do for today. This dress was plain white. It had straps, but no back. I walked into the changing booth and slipped it on. This one was different. It felt good to wear. It wasn't uncomfortable or intrusive. This is the one. Perfect, now we can get out of here.

Sky's POV

"Where do you suppose Shadow is now?" I asked absentmindedly. No matter what I tried to do, my thoughts always drifted back to Shadow.

"I dunno, mate" Marine replied. "Probably somewhere bad" the though that Shadow was in danger made me feel even worse. I already figured he was, but if other people are coming to the same conclusion, then it can't be a good sign.

"I don't know him very well, but Miles thinks pretty highly of him" Miles? She must mean Tails. Wow, I just figured Tails was scared of Shadow. "And why do you care so much about Shady anyway? Are you two an item?"

"What? N-no…" I stammered unconvincingly. My flushed face sold me out. Once again, I was reminded of our almost-kiss and how close we were to kissing. I longed to be that close to him again.

"Don't worry, I won't tell no one," the raccoon said, winking at me. I sighed. _Why me?_

Shadow's POV

Three! I rushed inside the building just as Silver and Blaze disappeared through the portal. There was the portal, but no sign of Mephiles. Along one wall was a rather large computer with files on the Day of Disaster; the day when Faker screwed up and got himself killed and Mephiles combined with Iblis to destroy everything. _Hey, Vector, I found the computer room!_ Oh, well, so I didn't get the chaos emeralds back from Mephiles. At least I get to go home.

"Shadow, fancy meeting you here" I nearly jumped out of my fur.

"Mephiles" I growled, striking an offensive stance.

"Calm down, Shadow; we don't need to fight. We're both quite alike, actually" he raised his hands defensively, to show he meant no harm. His voice had a strange melodic texture to it, like he was trying to impose his will upon me through hypnotic suggestion. Well, I've got bad news for him; it's not going to work.

"Save it. I don't want to hear it"

"We both hurt people"

"I used to hurt people," I admitted. "But now I only hurt creeps like you"

"Then what about Sky?" my blood froze when he said her name. His voice was so full of mock sympathy, that it made me want to puke. My shock made him smile, or would have, had he had a mouth. He was _so_ close to getting beaten.

"You told her you'd be fine. You've been gone for days now. She's been crying for those days and can't do much more than lay in bed. _You lied to her_. Not a very good way to start a relationship, if you ask me" an evil glint made itself visible in his eye. His voice became progressively more malicious. "Maybe I'll go _comfort_ her" that crosses the line.

I punched him right in the nose with every intention of breaking it. It felt satisfying to feel my fist collide with his face. He reeled back, holding his nose and shouting in surprise. I continued my assault. Two more punches and a kick to the gut. The last kick sent him flying into a pile of rubble, kicking up a cloud of dust.

"If you go anywhere near Sky, so help me, I will _destroy_ you" Through the cloud shot a blast of purple energy. I had to bend over backwards to avoid it altercating with my face. The first blast was followed by several more. Using my natural agility I weaved my way through the volley of purple energy. As I was jumped out of the way of one, another glanced my shoulder. The force of it spun me around and knocked me to the ground. I looked over at my shoulder. The uniform was torn at the shoulder and now I was bleeding. But I was just getting started. Unfortunately, so was Mephiles. 

"I thought you didn't care about anything. Perhaps I was wrong, hmm, Shadow? Do you care about her?" He walked over to me with an amused looking expression. I quickly got back up to my feet. I punched at him again. Before the blow could land. He grabbed my wrist and spun me around. We broke apart, and his claws sliced up the glove on my left hand. His claws caught on my inhibitor ring with a metallic click, and jerked my whole body forward. I raised my free hand to swing at him again. This time, my fist passed right through him. His foot slammed into my chest, and it was my turn to smash into a pile of debris. I stood again, expelling all the dust from my lungs. Mephiles just stood looking at me, probably planning my downfall. I tensed in preparation for another attack. Instead of fighting back, he laughed and disappeared into the shadows. Coward. Next, I noticed that the time portal was closing, I had maybe seconds before it closes and I have to find an alternate mode of transportation. I ran and jumped, sailing through the air. I sunk through the portal effortlessly.

I've tried a great many times to describe what it's like to travel through time, but it's so far fetched that I can't quite put my finger on it. It was like being in a giant panorama room, but instead of one picture, there are thousands, like a cross between the intersect computer room and the levels from Super Mario 64. There were scenes from the past, and scenes I guessed must be from the future, but so far as I could tell, none from my time. _Damn it, I'm never gonna get home at this rate_. Of course I have no idea what "this rate" is, because time is apparently indistinguishable while traveling through it. After what seemed like hours of scouring the pictures for any recognizable detail, I found one from my time. I did my best to maneuver in the time flow; there was no gravity. With effort, I flailed my way to the past.

I was dumped into the ruins of the military base I was guarding earlier. I staggered and fell on my side. Mephiles really did a number on this place after I left. There were G.U.N. troops all around, cleaning up the wreckage. Obviously surprised by my entrance, they padded over to me cautiously, with guns raised.

"Identify yourself!" one of them commanded. Is that really necessary? _Identify yourself?_ Really, how many black and red hedgehogs do you know that work for the U.S. government? Regardless, it's better not to argue.

"Lance Corporal Shadow" I mumbled, slightly dazed from time travel.

"Lower your weapons" the same officer yelled. The other soldiers averted the barrels of their various weapons away from me. Then, via a radio strapped to his shoulder, he called in medical transport, presumably for me.

"Private, what's the date?" I inquired, standing up and brushing off the tattered remains of my uniform.

"Today is the twenty-fifth of March, sir" I left on the twenty-third. Mephiles was right. I suddenly felt uncomfortably hot. Guilt, maybe?

"Oh, god" I whispered. I must have caused a great deal of grief if I really had been gone for two days. I stood up shakily and started to walk off.

"Where do you think you're going?" another soldier demanded.

"I'm going to tell my friends that I'm all right" I replied coldly.

"I'm sorry, sir, but I'm afraid I can't let you go without medical treatment," he said, blocking my path. I grabbed the front of his uniform and yanked him roughly down to eye level.

"Private, I out-rank you, and you think you can tell me what to do?" I hissed. "You will get out of my way _before I rip your head off_" and I shoved him for good measure. The now terrified soldier just nodded as he got up and scurried out of my way. The others didn't want to interfere for fear that such a thing would incur my wrath. I ran off with a rather wobbly start. My eyelids felt like lead; my feet weren't much better. Well, my skates were actually made of metal. I hadn't realized quite how tired I was before now. I haven't been this tired since I fell off the ARK. Then, something caught my eye. The inhibitor ring was missing from my one wrist. Damn, I must have lost it in the scuffle with Mephiles. Not only that, but I was soaking in blood, my own, I assumed. I felt my energy spilling out of me like water down a shower drain. I always carry a spare inhibitor ring with me, but there are so many damn pockets in this uniform, I can't very well be sure where the hell it is. I could barely see Silver's house in the distance. The edges of my field of vision were starting to fade. As fast as my body would allow, I felt my way around the multitude of pockets. The right side of my body was starting to go numb. I stumbled and fell, a mere five yards from the door. Damn. How long will it be before they notice me? Then my vision went black, cutting me off from the world.

A/N: Oh, no! Shadow's injured! Silver and the others currently are away. How long will it be before they find him? If you have any ideas on what should happen next, they would be greatly appreciated.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Sorry it took so long to write this. In all honesty, I didn't write this chapter. Crazy Muffin Assassin did. All I did was give her a rough outline of what I wanted to happen. For whatever reason, I wrote this chapter at least twelve different times in a multitude of different ways, and none of them sounded quite right, or finished, so I asked my friend CMA to help. Any praise should be directed or addressed to her.

Sky's POV

"So you like Shady? I like Shady too, even though I _love _Miles. Miles says he's like a hero. Is he a hero? I kinda thought he was like an _anti-hero _or something. Do you think he and Sonic look alike? I heard that Amy thought he was him, but she was wrong and he's really not him but someone else that's not him." My eye twitched as Marine continued with her blabbering. I'd lost track of what the hell she's talking about, and I'm supposedly one of the greatest minds on the planet! We've been standing out here for the whole of ten minutes, and I already want to kill myself. My God, if she doesn't stop talking...

"Look, Marine?" I finally got few words in. She snapped her mouth shut and looked up at me with wide eyes. Well, that shut her up.

"Yeees...?"

"I'm pretty beat, and, well, since I've already got my dress sorted out, I was thinking that I'm just gonna go," I told her, silently wishing that she wouldn't insist on tagging along.

"Oh, well I guess I'll just go with ya!" Damn it. I heaved a sigh, my ears drooping slightly.

"Fine." We started walking, heading back towards Silver's house. Delicate flakes of snow began to fall from the sky, lightly dusting my fur. Ah... March... Your fickle weather patterns never fail to amaze me... Silver and I both _love_ snow, mostly because we lived in Crisis City for most of our lives and, well, it's one huge, freakin _fire!_

"S-snow?" Marine stuttered, shivering and hugging herself. "I-it's cold!" No duh, Sherlock.

"Do you wanna head back to the dress shop? It's closer than Silver's place." Please say yes, please say yes, _please say yes!_

"N-no, I'm a-okay, mate," Marine answered, her teeth chattering. Damn it! I took off into a run, leaving Marine well behind me. I felt a stab of guilt for ditching her like that, but, well, I got over it. I neared Silver's place in a matter of seconds. Heh, you know what stopped me? I _tripped_. True, I am extraordinarily clumsy, but I don't usually trip on _snow_. With a groan, I turned to see what could possibly have made me stumble.

There was a large green mound buried beneath the snow. _What could that be?_ I wondered, crawling over to check it out. I only saw a single streak of bright red against black, and I knew. It was Shadow. I dug frantically, snow flying up around me as I struggled to uncover the unconscious hedgehog. He was wearing a green uniform, but the jacket was completely shredded. Plus, a sleeve was missing. I saw his arm, again, black and red, which verified his identity. He was wearing a helmet, so I took it off, and tossed it to the side to get lost somewhere in the snow. His breathing was rapid and shallow, and his eyes were squeezed shut.

"Sh-Shadow?" I stuttered, shaking him gently. He moaned and his voice edged with pain. I shifted him slightly, shocked to see the snow stained with blood.

"I'll get you out of here," I murmured, placing his arm over my shoulders. A glint of gold caught my eye, and I dropped him momentarily. I reached for the glimmer; surprised to see that it's one of the bands he wears on his wrists. The same ones he never takes off. Swiftly, I snapped it around the one bare wrist, ensuring that it is tightly secured. His breathing became stronger, though it was still ragged and uneven. I began to drag him up towards the house.

"Wow, you're heavy!" I grunted in surprise. Seriously, he's heavier than I thought! But still, I managed to lug him up the hill. Just as I got Shadow settled on the couch, the door flew open. You'll never guess who it was...

"You bloody left me!" Marine snapped, stomping into the den. _Yeah, that was the point. _

"Shh, Marine, I'm sorry," I whispered. She began to shout obscenities. I rolled my eyes. "Shut up and look at who I found."

Marine's eyes looked down and widened. "Shady!"

"Yeah, so hush," I told her quietly. "Could you get me the first aid kit from the bathroom, please?" Marine nodded, silent for once, and left to fetch what I'd asked for. I turned my attention back to Shadow, who was beginning to look weaker by the second. I turned him over to take a look at the source of his wounds. The back was worse than the front by far, and there were shards of broken glass and metal stuck in his back. _Okay, this is going to hurt..._

I clenched my jaw and ripped the jacket from him, taking much of the debris out of his flesh with it. His back arched, and he released a low groan of pain. Marine returned with the first aid kit, handing it to me. I open it up, removing cotton balls and a bottle of alcohol. After removing the remaining shards from Shadow's back, I dabbed at his wounds with the alcohol, my ears flattening as he hissed with pain. The front door opened yet again, and I heard a familiar set of footsteps, alerting me of the arrival of my twin.

"Sky, can you believe it's snow- is that Shadow?" He bolted to my side.

Blaze's response to my discovery? "You're getting blood on my furniture."

"Yeah, I know. I'll clean it up later," I grumbled without looking at her. Why does she insist on being so _irritating?_

"Where did you find him?" Silver asked, kneeling beside me and watching my hands as I bandaged Shadow's wounds. "And what _happened_ to him?"

"I found him in a snow bank on the way up to the house. There was, um, broken glass and burnt shards of metal lining his back," I explained, taping the last bandage down. "He was a mess when I found him."

"I can imagine," Silver murmured. He turned, jumping as he saw Marine for the first time. "Marine? What the heck are you doing here?"

"Hey, pointy, no need to sound so dodgy! I came up here with Sky!" the young raccoon answered, obviously having gotten over her chill.

"Oh, um, could you please, uh, _leave?_" Silver asked, trying to be nice. He's always been a bit of a wuss. I rolled my eyes again, turning my attention back to Shadow. I turn him back over, careful of his injuries. His breathing was steadier, and the color had returned back to his face. I smoothed the fur on his cheek, resisting the temptation to plant one on him then and there. Even unconscious, bleeding, and covered with soot (although that doesn't really have a huge effect anyway. He's _black_ for heaven's sake), he's still gorgeous. I brushed off the ash staining the fluffy white patch of fur on his chest.

"I'm not leaving! It's bloody cold out there!" Marine protested, fighting Silver in the doorway and breaking me away from my thoughts.

"Marine, it's not that we don't _want_ you here, it's just that, well, we kind of need some... family time, 'Kay?" Silver lied. Family time? Ha! I didn't think that Silver could make a joke.

"But it's snowing!"

"Oh, it's fine, Silver," Blaze stepped in, a sneer spreading on her face. "She can stay and keep _Sky_ company." Bitch. I shot her a death glare, baring my teeth in a silent snarl. She smirked at me, her eyes reflecting my own hatred. I whipped my head back around with huff. I waited for her to walk out before relaxing. Silver flashed me a sympathetic look, lifting himself up with a grunt.

"I'll come back later. Could you clean up by yourself?" he asked, his eyes resting on me, dark with concern. _Gee, thanks for offering your services, bro. You're such a _wonderful_ brother,_ I thought sarcastically, blinking at him.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Marine can help me, right Marine?"

"Huh? Yeah!" the younger replied bluntly, staring at me stupidly. I sighed. It's going to a be a _long_ night...

Shadow's POV (subconscious)

Once again, I had to let Maria patch me up. See what had happened was there was an experiment run amuck, and I had to put a stop to it. Of course, this resulted in serious injury to myself and the ARK as a whole.

"Why do you do this to yourself, Shadow?" Maria's voice was soft, and her blue eyes were dark with worry. For a human, she's quite beautiful. She's precious to me, my only true friend.

"Because-Ow!-everyone here is my family, and it is my duty to protect all of you," I answered simply, wincing as she rubbed me down with alcohol, making my skin burn.

"You got yourself into quite a pickle, eh, Shadow?" Professor Gerald's voice was the next thing to reach my ears. "You did well, my boy."

"I try my best, sir," I told him, dipping my head. "I'd do anything to protect my home."

"I see that," the Doctor observed, nodding. I felt something press against my cheek; it was warm, and soft. What could it be? I touched the spot lightly with my hand, feeling only a slight tingling sensation and nothing more. My face burned, and my hand remained on my cheek.

"What's wrong, Shadow?" Maria asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost!"

Professor Gerald joked lightly. "Maybe you hit your head while you were fighting Artificial Chaos." Artificial Chaos was meant to be an indestructible goo-like substance, based off an ancient god from some far off religion. Indestructible, that is, before I stuffed it into a jar and sent it flying into space.

"It's nothing," I muttered, reluctantly pulling my hand away from my face.

Sky's POV

I withdrew from Shadow's cheek with tears welling up in my eyes. A few dropped from my eyes, dripping onto Shadow's body. I rested my head on his chest, letting the sobs rack my body. Oh, Shadow, what happened to you?


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Thanks to Crazy Muffin Assassin.

Shadow's POV

I'm detecting a pattern. I've seemed to develop the bad habit of getting injured, then waking up somewhere unfamiliar feeling like I've been run over by a tank several times over and dragged for several miles. Ugh…what happened to me? I couldn't really see much, my eyes didn't feel like adjusting to the newfound light, but it didn't appear to be one of the Doctor's many hideaways. Rather, from what I can tell, I'm lying on an uncomfortable couch.

First I tried speaking. "Mmmmmhlp" Never mind, screw speaking. Even my tongue hurts.

Maybe I can go find someone to help me. If I could roll over, and get a better look at this place, then maybe I can determine where the hell I am. I tried to roll over, but my arms did not feel like moving. I felt like my muscles had been melted then frozen, then melted again. My right arm is completely numb. I tried again; this time, I got a little twitch from my left hand. That's a start. In my frustration, I kicked the sofa. Wait! My legs work! Ok, I might just get out of here yet.

Carefully, I pushed myself to the left with my right leg, so not to fall off the edge. Finally, I got a good look at everything. Apparently, I'm in Silver's living room. Then I looked down. No wonder I feel so terrible, I'm wrapped in bandages. My entire torso and right shoulder are covered. What happened to my? I strained to remember what left me in such a damaged state. Slowly, like a small leak in a dam, memories came trickling back. I was in a hurry…to get back from the future…because of something Mephiles said. And then it hit me; Sky! Oh, jeez, Sky must be an emotional train wreck if half of what Mephiles said is true.

My train of thought was interrupted by the fact that my jacket was missing. Damn, if my jacket's gone, so is the spare inhibitor ring. I scanned the room for any remains of my clothing. There was a trail leading from the door. My shredded jacket was about halfway from the couch to the door. My plan was roughly along the lines of this: Get my jacket, check up on Sky, go kill Mephiles.

Next step: getting off the couch. Sounds easy, right? Well, yeah, it is pretty easy; it just hurts when you fall on your face without anything else to break your fall. Once again, I rolled over on my back. Great, how am I supposed to get up?

After approximately ten minutes of trying to do that thing from the martial arts movies where you jump back to your feet from a lying position, I gave up and decided to crawl over. This has to be the most pathetic thing I've ever done.

I was starting to regain feeling in my arms again, although my right arm is still incredibly sore. With my left, I started rifling through the pockets. Finally, when I looked through all the pockets, the ring was nowhere to be found. I am screwed. I will die a pathetic death. I will no longer be remembered as the hero who stopped the ARK from crashing to earth, or the hedgehog that single handedly defeated Black Doom and destroyed the Black Comet. People will spit on my grave and laugh at me for generations to come. _Shadow the Hedgehog: died because he lost his inhibitor ring. Loser!_

Sky's POV

Today's my birthday. Another birthday come and gone. Whoopdie-freakin-doo. I just hope Shadow will be ok. He's been lying on that couch for a day and a half without so much as shifting in his sleep. I haven't been able to stop thinking about him. I've been spending those past few days avoiding Silver and Blaze and their wedding craziness. But seeing as it's Silver's birthday as well, I can't very well avoid them forever. Maybe, I'll go check up on Shadow.

Lazily, I hauled myself from my bed and got up. You can get pretty stiff from lying on a bed for eighteen hours. I raised my arms over my head and stretched my back. Walking quietly, I padded down the stairs. Silver and Blaze were elsewhere, discussing details about the wedding. Yuck. When I walked into the living room, I nearly had a heart attack; I expected Shadow to be passed out on the couch. Instead, he was lying on the floor, swearing, and doing what appeared to be trying to get up.

"Shadow?" I asked meekly. The swearing stopped. He rolled over to face me. I could tell he was embarrassed, a trait quite uncommon in Shadow.

"Sky?" he responded. His embarrassed expression was replaced something just as uncommon: concern. "Sky! Sky, are you all right?" he asked, uncharacteristically worried. His red eyes looked up at me from the floor with anxiety and fear. Not fear for himself, but for…me.

"I think the better question is _are you all right._ You were out for nearly two days without so much as twitching and now you're rolling around on the carpet"

"So…so you're ok?" he asked again. I nodded. He relaxed noticeably, but the worried expression persisted.

"Shadow, what's wrong?"

"This might seem kind of weird, but have you seen my inhibitor ring? I seem to have misplaced it" he wouldn't look me in the eye, and his kept fidgeting with his hands.

I tried to suppress a smile. "Have you by any chance misplaced it on your wrist?" he rolled his eyes, but looked down anyway.

His expression was a mixture of relief and annoyance at the same time "Well, that just _figures_"

"So," I changed the subject, helping him up and into the kitchen. I figured he'd probably be more comfortable there. I had at least a million questions swirling around my brain, but I managed to tone it down for his sake. When I heard myself say it out loud, it sounded desperate and worried. I was going for caring, but not too much. "What happened to you? Where did you go?"

"It's a long story," Shadow said.

"Well, I've got time"

…_Roughly twenty minutes of useless storytelling later…_

"Wow, that is without a doubt the weirdest story ever. Why didn't you just correct us when Silver called you Lance?"

Shadow shrugged. "I figured it would just be better if I went along with it for fear that I might change the future, or something"

"Silver still wonders about what happened to "Lance", you know," I laughed. Speak of the devil and he will appear. I could hear Silver and Blaze, still talking about the impending wedding. They were immediately shocked to see Shadow up and about again. Silver was faster at overcoming the surprise.

"Shadow, great to see you again! How are you feeling?" Instead of answering, Shadow glared at him. The room suddenly got cold. Silver made a joke once about how Shadow's glare can lower the room temperature by five degrees. I guess it wasn't a joke. "Sha-Shadow?" Silver slowly backed away from the black hedgehog.

"If you _ever_ call me Lance again, I will cut you" Silver was perplexed.

"Yep, he's fine" Blaze interjected.

"Oh, Shadow, before I forget, here" Silver tossed the green chaos emerald over to Shadow. Instead of catching it, the gem bounced off his chest and landed on he table with a small ping.

"Wow Shadow, great reflexes" Blaze scoffed.

"How did you get that?" he asked, snatching it up and looking around suspiciously.

"It's a long story," Silver answered.

"We'll explain later. We should probably start celebrating soon," the lavender cat said.

"Celebrating what?" Shadow was obviously confused.

"Today's our eighteenth birthday" I gestured to Silver and myself.

"Oh. That's not really my scene" Shadow said, rather aloofly.

"C'mon, at least stay for a little while. I made cake" I insisted. On the inside, I was hoping that he would stay, just so I could be near him. The others don't seem to see it, but he has this…charisma, if you will. Reluctantly, he gave in. Reluctance, not a good sign, but at least he'll stay.

Shadow's POV 

_Why does she want me around?_ I asked myself. Better question: _does she want me around? Is it a coincidence, or does she want to be with me?_ What could she possibly see in me that's appealing? With her, it's obvious; she's beautiful. Me, however, am an entirely different matter. I'm just that anti social person with no friends. I felt an uncomfortable tingling in the pit of my stomach. Did my wounds re-open? I don't think I have any injuries on my stomach. Suddenly, the room got very hot. Damn it, is there something else wrong with me? Did I catch a cold? That's pathetic; the Ultimate Life Form brought to his knees from an insignificant bacterial infection.

Silver and Blaze wanted to know what had happened to me as well, so I told them. I left out the things that Mephiles said about the present time as I had before; no need to anger Silver and Blaze over something unimportant. I think my injuries are extensive enough without Blaze burning me.

Silver's eyes were the size of dinner plates "So _you_ were Lance?"

I nodded. "Dude, that's amazing! You took out Iblis by yourself!"

Blaze was less than impressed. "Yeah, great, you saved Sky" Sky frowned slightly at that last comment.

"Blaze, come on" Silver groaned. "Would it kill you to be nice to Sky?"

Silver's POV

"Shadow, are you feeling all right? You look kinda pale"

"I _am_ pale" he scowled. Inwardly, I smiled. Crisis City life is not for the faint of heart. After hearing Shadow's account of what happened to him, we decided it was time to eat the cake.

The cake looked absolutely delicious. It was vanilla with vanilla frosting and nineteen candles. Eighteen for our eighteen years and one for good luck. Together, Sky and I blew out the candles.

"Oi! Lemme in! Pointy! Blazey! Can ya hear me? Open up!" a muffled shout echoed followed by frantic banging on the door.

"Finally got a lock for the door, I see" Shadow noticed.

"Doesn't Marine have anything better to do than constantly drop by here?" I complained. Reluctantly, I got up to see what Marine wanted.

I twisted the lock and opened the door. "What do you want now, Marine?"

Then I took note of her appearance; her face was dripping with tears and her usual happy demeanor had all but vanished. Her gloves were covered in blood, and it didn't appear to be her own. "It's Miles," She said in between sobs. "He's-" her gaze fell on Shadow and her body went rigid.

"You bastard! Miles thought so highly of you! He said you were a good person!" she snapped.

"What are you blabbering about now?" Shadow asked impatiently. Surprisingly fast, for Marine at any rate, she ran forward and punched Shadow. Shadow, not expecting this, took the full brunt of the blow and fell backwards on the couch.

"Marine! What are you doing?" I demanded. Marine went to punch Shadow again, but I stopped her hand with my telekinesis when she drew it back.

"Lemme go, Silver! That bastard hurt Miles" She screamed. She called me Silver; she must be serious. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what probably happened (or else I'd be clueless), and by the look on everyone's faces, they were thinking pretty much the same thing, save for Marine, who was still blaming Shadow.

"Marine," Sky asked. "Did you see "Shadow" attack Tails?"

"_No_" she replied sarcastically. "Of course I saw him, you bloody twit!"

"Well, did he…take anything?"

Marine thought for a second. "Yea, now that ya mention it, he took somethin' from Miles' plane and somethin' from one a' his worktables"

Sky turned to me. "Bingo"

"Marine, you might want to take a seat," I suggested. Reluctantly, Marine sat down, making sure she sat as far away as possible from Shadow, but still persisted in giving him dirty looks.

…_The ineffective, overly complicated explanation of the Solaris fiasco…_

Sky's POV

"So you and Blaze came to the past and caused a lot of problems. How does that explain Shadow attacking Miles?" Marine asked impatiently.

"Did you not pay attention? Everything was explained" Blazed replied.

"To recap, Mephiles is the conscious, genial half of Solaris, the sun god. When he was released from the scepter of Darkness he stole Shadow's shadow, in turn taking his look and copying his powers. Understand?"

"So Mephitis-"

"Mephiles"

"I've heard it both ways. So Mephiles is Shadow's shadow? An' he looks like 'em and everythin'? An' he's good at manipulatin' people?"

"Yeah, pretty much" Marine was about as overjoyed as a previously sad person could be.

"Oh, Shady! I knew ya couldn't be a villain!" she ran over and hugged him tightly.

"Didn't stop you from punching me" Shadow grumbled, trying to squirm out of her surprisingly firm grip.

"I don't mean to interrupt here, but what exactly happened to Tails?" I asked. Marine's eyes teared up again and her hung her head low. She mumbled something, while tears began to drip down her face again.

"No, never mind! It's ok! You don't have to tell us!" I said quickly, vainly attempting to stem the flow of her tears.

"Messy breaks and several punctures" she sobbed again, wrapping her arms around her knees.

"But…He'll be ok, right?" my voice trailed off. If Tails died, that would send Marine into an emotional tailspin. I can't quite picture someone so innocent as Tails dying at Mephiles' hands. I heard that he killed Sonic, but Sonic is a fighter, always in the thick of the action.

If anything, her sobbing became more labored. "I…I dunno. Those witch doctors w-wouldn't tell me anythin'. They wouldn't even let me in to see him. They jus' put him on a stretcher and threw him in the ambulance" I wanted to go comfort her, but my tongue was not cooperating and my feet refused to move.

Strangely enough, Shadow stepped up the metaphorical plate, and gave his best shot at being comforting. "Don't worry. Tails is stronger than he looks. He won't let Mephiles, much less anyone, do him in if he's got you to look after" he crying ebbed a little, but she was still vastly saddened.

"Hey Marine?" I walked over to her and put my hand on her shoulder.

"What?" she looked up at me. It's so hard to see her like this, after I had been dying to get away from her annoying gleefulness only a few days ago.

I tried to put on my best reassuring smile. "Want some cake?"

"Sure, mate" her response was only half-hearted. I helped the raccoon up and lead her to the other room. Shadow followed us, at length, just in case. Marine can throw quite a punch.

Silver's POV

"Remember when life used to be relatively normal? Without people being constantly injured?" I asked.

"Our lives were never normal, just different" Blaze responded dryly.

"Tell me about it. Can you believe it, Blaze? Only five days until our wedding"

"You don't know the half of it. Amy decided that I would be having a bachelorette party. The girls are going to drag me off to do something feminine, like shopping or something"

"You have my sympathies"

"Your sympathies? I'd rather have you" my fiancée wrapped her arms around my neck and looked at me with her loving eyes. Five days is about four-and-a-half days too long. It's just that weddings are more of a Sunday thing than a Tuesday thing.

Sky called from the other room. "Hey, Silver, you want any cake?"

"Sure. We'll be there in a minute" I called back. I pecked her on the cheek and got up off the couch. Blaze sighed slightly, but went with me. Just as we crossed the threshold to the other room, the doorbell rang.

Blaze groaned. With any luck (or lack thereof) it would probably be Sonic or someone else wanting to know about, or here to tell us about Tails. "I got it, Blaze. You just stay here," I said, sensing her frustration.

I opened the door and was immediately taken aback. The motley crew of five people standing in front of me was out of place and strange looking, even by Chaotix standards.

"Is this the residence of Silver T. Hedgehog?" the one in front asked. He was a black fox wearing a black leather jacket, a V-neck tee shirt, torn jeans, high-top sneakers, and rose coloured glasses. His wavy black hair went down to his shoulders and he had a thick Brooklyn accent.

"Yeah, who are you guys?" I asked suspiciously.

"Yea, we're here! Time to rock n' roll!" some little kid shouted. He was a hyperactive little thing, not unlike Charmy or Marine, climbing all over the guy in the leather jacket, finally stopping and hanging around his shoulders.

The black fox smiled mischievously. "We're Slingshots N' Daisies. We're the band you hired"

A/N: I know that this is the same name as my band, but listen to me when I say I'm not inserting alter egos of myself and my band mates into the story; that would make us cool. Rather, I took one band member from my five favorite bands, (Angus Young, AC/DC, Joey Ramone, Ramones, Paul McCartney, Beatles, Slash, Guns N' Roses, and Neil Peart, Rush) changed their names slightly, and turned them into mobians.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Thanks to Crazy Muffin Assassin. As far as this chapter goes, I'm writing a spin-off story about the band called _Shadow The Hedgehog: The Ultimate Frontman_. For more details, read the story.

Blaze's POV

Who is Silver talking to? Being a cat, I've got a great sense of hearing, and so far as I can tell, it's not anyone we know.

A moment later Silver reentered the building…followed by five strange looking people.

"Silver, _dear_, why are you inviting strange people into our home?"

"They're not…err…well, they are strange, but these guys are the band we hired"

"And you are Silv's lovely fiancée, I presume?" a black fox with pink glasses said, bowing forward and kissing my hand. I pulled my hand back.

"And who are you?"

"Terribly sorry, miss. I'm Joseph Ramono, lead singer" motioning toward himself. Apparently,

He pointed to the odd little raccoon, wearing what appeared to be a schoolboy uniform, standing next to him. "This is our lead guitarist, Angus Little" the little raccoon puffed up his chest and grinned wickedly.

"This is Scratch, our rhythm guitarist" the hedgehog with the unruly black hair and the top hat nodded.

"Paul MacCaffrey, our bassist" He seemed to be the most idealistic of the bunch. He was a white cat with black hair styled in a bowl cut, wearing a black suit.

"Last, but probably not least, is our drummer, Neil Kert" Neil was a grey echidna with a red bandana wrapped around his forehead, and was twirling drumsticks between his fingers. _Weird, I would never have pegged him as a drummer._

"So, miss, are we allowed in, or do we have to wait on the lawn?" Joseph asked jokingly.

I looked from him, to Silver and back again. I decided that a little hospitality never hurt anyone.

"Sure, just don't make a mess of things"

We'll make sure not to" Joseph replied, smiling.

…_Meanwhile…_

Shadow's POV

Wow, Sky is a really good cook; this cake is delicious. Granted, the last time I had cake was fifty some years ago on the professor's sixty-eighth birthday, back on the ARK.

"Hey there, what's a pretty girl like you sittin' here all alone for?" I swiveled in my chair, to see a small raccoon wearing a schoolboy uniform trying to flirt with Marine.

"Screw off. I've already got a boyfriend, you dou-" Marine stopped dead when she turned to face him.

"Feisty. That boy of yours sure is lucky" the strange raccoon remarked. Marine continued to stare, open-mouthed, at him.

"Marine? Anyone home?" I asked, waving my hand in front of her face.

That seemed to jar her back to reality. "Shady, d'you know who that is?" she asked.

"No" I replied honestly.

She gaped at me like I was that Charlie Sheen guy, or something. "That's Angus Little! The best guitar player in all of Mobius!" I spared another glance at him.

"He's a little kid," I argued. While, Marine and I were debating Angus' validity, Angus was staring at me like Marine was at him.

"Shadow, zat you?" he asked slowly.

"My name's Shadow, but we've never met," I answered coldly.

"Lemme see your hand," he commanded, pointing to my left hand. I held out my hand for him to examine. He pulled the glove off to reveal a mark on my palm. I figured it was a birthmark, or a scar, but Angus said otherwise.

"That's our tattoo! The slingshot an' the daisy! Great to see ya, Shadow!" he jumped and hugged me.

"Get off! It's not a tattoo," I growled. I looked at my hand again. The "tattoo" looked like it was applied by a five year old with safety scissors; it's obviously a scar.

"Yeah" Angus scoffed rolling op his sleeve. "An' I just happen to have an identical one on my arm" It's true his did have a similar looking mark on his bicep. Just then, Silver and Blaze, followed by four more strangers walked.

"Shadow!" the four exclaimed in unison.

"Back off. How do you people know my name?" I demanded.

"It's ok if ya don't remember; ya got _pretty_ wasted. You filled in for me at a concert when I broke my leg" a black fox answered. He seemed to have the same kind of smug confidence that Sonic is always flaunting.

"No. Never happened. I don't sing"

"That rockin' performance says otherwise, mate; I was there. I couldn't believe it was you 'til Rouge told me" Marine piped up. I was sorely tempted to put her in the hospital, right next to Tails.

"See? You just got wasted and forgot"

Meanwhile, Silver was dying from laughter.

Silver's POV

"You guys…mean to tell me…that _Shadow,_ of all people, was a rock n' roll singer?

This time, Paul spoke up. "What's not to believe? He was great"

"Um, have you seen him?" Blaze inquired. "He doesn't listen to music, therefore, doesn't go to concerts, and probably doesn't sing either. Regardless, as a general rule of thumb, Rouge isn't the best source of accurate information"

"Well, the boys and I were planning on practicing. How about Shadow sings a few songs and you decided for yourself whether he was there"

"I don't like this idea" Shadow voiced his opinion.

"C'mon, Shadow" Sky coaxed. "One little song. Surely the ultimate life form isn't afraid of a little song" Shadow clenched his un-gloved hand and rested it on the table.

"Fine"

Sky's POV

Wow, I never thought he'd actually agree to this. If only I had my camera. The band took about fifteen minutes to set up the drum kit and all the amps.

It was the five of them standing out there, with Joseph and the rest of us, sitting on the lawn. Angus was strumming with his Gibson SG, Scratch was tunning his Gibson Les Paul, Paul was plucking his fender bass, Neil was just sitting behind his drum kit, still twirling drumsticks between his fingers, and Shadow was standing in front, looking completely clueless.

Paul walked over and handed a sheet of paper, probably music. Shadow looked over the paper for a second, then signaled to Neil that he was ready. The music started with Angus playing a guitar riff. I recognized the song within three notes. It was their song _Sweet Child O' Mine_. It was a good forty-five seconds before the vocals come in.

Until then, Angus was performing his signature stage antics; running around, jumping, and rolling on the ground, all while flawlessly playing tricky riffs.

Scratch started to play the rhythm, and Paul and Neil added their own instruments to the mix.

Finally, the vocal part came.

"She's got a smile that it seems to me reminds me of childhood memories, where everything was as fresh as the bright blue sky. Now and then when I see her face, it takes me away to that special place and if I stare too long, I'd probably break down and cry" His voice was incredibly rich. His voice was deep, about a baritone, and surprisingly clear. I could understand every word he sung.

"Whoa, oh, oh, sweet child o' mine. Whoa, oh, oh, oh, sweet love o' mine"

Shadow's POV

What kind of song is this? I thought Slingshots N' Daisies were supposed to be hard rock revolutionaries, not a bunch of pansies that sing about girls they like. After I sang that last part, Angus played a small riff that deviated from the normal melody.

"She's got eyes of the bluest skies, as if they thought of rain. I'd hate to look into those eyes and see an ounce of pain. Her hair reminds me of a warm safe place, where as a child I'd hide, and pray for the thunder and the rain to quietly pass me by" almost without noticing it, I found myself watching Sky when I sang that verse. The instant I realized what I was doing I looked away.

"Who, oh, oh, sweet child o' mine. Whoa, oh, oh, oh, sweet love o' mine" After the second verse, Scratch took a short solo.

"Whoa, oh, oh yeah! Whoa, oh, oh, oh, sweet child o' mine. Whoa oh, oh, oh, sweet love of mine Whoa, oh, oh _oh,_ sweet child o' mine. Whoa, yeah! Oh, oh, oh, oh, sweet love o' mine"

This time, Angus took a solo. He was all over the place: running back and forth, rolling around on the ground, and never missing a single note. It almost looked like he was having a seizure. The solo continued on for a few minutes. I figured he was probably improvising. I might not know much about music, but no one plays a solo that long.

"Where do we go? Where do we go now? Where do we go?" I repeated that line a couple of times, as instructed on the page of lyrics. "Sweet child, sweet child of mine" Neil finished with a small drum fill, ending with a cymbal crash.

Everyone stood up cheering and clapping, especially Sky. I guess I can sing. I handed the mike I was using to Joseph and started to walk towards the others.

"C'mon, Shadow! Sing another song!" Silver called.

"Yeah, Shady! You can really rock!" Marine agreed.

"No. Hell no. No in THX. There is no force on Earth, or under it, that can make me sing another song"

"I guess that idea was shot down in flames. It's ok, dude. We'll take it from here" Joseph said, winking. He walked up to the rest of the band and put the mike to his mouth.

"Ok, ladies and dudes, Shadow helped us write this song, back when he got wasted. Hit it, Ang!"

Angus took his guitar pick and raised it high over his head. Slowly, he put his hand down until the pick was resting gently against the b string. Fastly and furiously, he started playing. I'm not extremely familiar with music, but Maria used to play violin, and I'm pretty sure that what Angus is playing is called an _arpeggio._ After a few arpeggios, he changed it and started alternating between higher notes and the same b note, progressively moving downward.

Then Paul and Joseph started to sing vocals. "Thunder!" They repeated that word every few seconds about five times.

"I was caught in the middle of railroad tracks! Thunder! I looked 'round, and I knew there was no turnin' back! Thunder! My mind raced and I thought," what could I do?" Thunder! And I knew there was no help, no help from you! Thunder!"

I found myself tapping my foot without noticing it and Sky was bobbing her head along to the drumbeat. Marine went so far as to sing along.

"Sound of the drums beatin' in my heart! The thunder of guns tore me apart! You've been thunderstru-"

"Will you cease this infernal racket?" an irritated voice demanded. The band stopped playing to see who was criticizing their music. Two people, just as out of place as Slingshots N' Daisies, but not nearly as street, were standing up against the house.

"Mom? Dad?" Blaze gasped.

A/N: Artemis Fowl reference! I do not own the song _Sweet Child O' Mine_, or _Thuderstruck_. Summer vacation is in a few days here, and I'm going on a European excursion. I'll be away from my computer so I won't be able to write, so this is the last update until late July to mid August. Sorry for the inconvenience.


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: I'm back! I'm so sorry for taking so long to write this chapter. My summers are just as hectic and crazy as the rest of the year. Thanks you, Crazy Muffin Assassin for editing and proofreading.

Blaze's POV

"Mom? Dad? What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Well, dear, we're here for your wedding" my father responded, smiling warmly. "We wouldn't miss it for the world"

"I believe some introductions are in order," My mom suggested, walking with my dad over to the rest of us. Silver got up and walked over to meet us.

"You must be Mr. and Mrs. Cat"

"And you must be our daughter's fiancé"

"Yeah" I could feel the anxiety radiating off of Silver all the way over here. I can't blame him; my parents are watching him like one would a Richard Ramirez.

To save Silver from further discomfort, I spoke up "…These are our friends Shadow and Marine, and that is Silver's sister, Sky"

"Blaze, who are _they?_ The ones with the instruments?"

"They're the band playing at our wedding"

"Yeah and who are the-mph!" Angus started to say something but Joseph kindly placed a hand over his mouth.

"Why, of all the bands in Mobius, did you choose them? When your father and I were married, _we_ had-"

"Mom, I will not do this with you right now"

"Fine, fine" she raised her hands in a defensive manner.

"So, when's the bachelor party" My dad asked with just a hint of mischievousness; a side of my dad I never ever wanted to see.

"It's" Silver cleared his throat. "It's in a few days"

Silver's POV

They scare me. Blaze's parents scare me. It might be their regal features, which on Blaze look so much more welcoming. It could be the way her mom looks at me, like I'm an evil monster bent on stealing her daughter's innocence and leaving her for dead, but I would be misguided if I said Blaze were completely innocent. It could very well be the way her father keeps on hand on the sharp looking rapier strapped to his waist.

Thankfully Blaze changed the subject away from me. We, or rather they talked, while I stood a safe distance away, about the wedding, and other related topics. They now know that the bachelor and bachelorette parties were set to be held this Friday and that we're going to have our honeymoon on the Irish coast and other details pertaining to the wedding.

We, and by that, I mean her parents, decided we would have a rehearsal dinner on Thursday. The idea of rehearsing something like a wedding seems a little silly, but apparently, it's just something you do with weddings.

The next two days passed surprisingly quickly for someone living with their fiancée, sister, soon to be parents in law, and a rock band. Shadow left shortly after Blaze's parents arrived. Marine stuck around a day longer only to come back the next day. Tails' medical condition had stabilized and thanks to all the pain medication he's on, he feels fine.

It was then, reflecting on all of this, that I found myself at the rehearsal, at Seaside Hill. The sun was shining, the sea was as blue and beautiful as anyone could possibly ask, and we were all dressed up. Everyone was there, even Tails, although he resembled Tails Doll more than himself due to bandages and casts.

Having just run through the ring ceremony and all that, Blaze and I sat at the head of the table with Blaze's parents and Sonic and Sky on either side. Everyone else filled in from there. Tails had an especially difficult time; it's not easy to sit, or possible, when you have a plaster cast on your broken tail.

The best man has to make a speech, so Sonic, being the best man, stood up.

"Silver, I remember when we first met; how could I not? You tried to kill me…" He still hasn't let that go. Regardless, it elicited laughter from everyone but Shadow and Blaze's parents.

"And later, when you discovered most shockingly that I was _not_ evil, we started talking. We talked about all sorts of things. Ourselves, others, the Mets" Again, everyone laughed but Shadow and Blaze's parents. Blaze's mom let a small smile show, but that was the extent of it.

"But when you started talking, you mentioned why you wanted to save the future, aside from it being the right thing to do. You said that after Iblis was gone and the world was rebuilt, you wanted to live there, with your best friend, Blaze the cat. Right then, I could tell. Your eyes would light up every time you said her name and a small grin would play across your lips. You loved her. Even if you didn't know it yourself, even if she didn't know, I knew you were crazy about her. And-"

"Cut!" Charmy interrupted. "Great work, people! That's a wrap" Awesome, Charmy's going back to his film director bit. Sonic shrugged, not particularly minding his speech had been cut short as he sat back down.

Blaze's parents, to further pressure me, wanted to see our dancing skills. Blaze can dance and has actually had formal training, but my ability extends to medium at DDR on a good day. We walked out where everyone could easily see us and got in position to dance.

"Silver, what are you doing? You hand is supposed to be at my hip" …I knew that…. I moved my hand from her shoulder down to her hip. Faux pas aside, I'm not completely incompetent and know that my free hand holds hers.

"Well? What're ya waitin' for?" Marine yelled over to us. Honesty is the most important thing in a relationship and now seemed as good a time as any.

"Would it come as a complete surprise if I told you I can't dance?" I asked meekly. Blaze thought a moment before responding.

"I think your hand on my shoulder was a clear enough indicator. I'll lead" my fiancée said. At first I thought she was joking, but the serious expression on her face said otherwise.

"On my mark" Joseph said. "One, Two, Three, Four!" Neil hit the snare drum and Angus started playing. It was almost disorienting, hearing Angus play; it sounded soft and almost acoustic, just a bit louder. Of course, being disoriented doesn't matter because Blaze is leading.

Blaze started dancing, pressing her body up against mine. We stepped back, forward, parted, twirled, and dipped. Needless to say, it was an intriguing experience that I won't soon, or want to forget. It had to be the sexiest, most lust filled dance I've ever participated in, even if I had been lead by a girl.

"Blazey was leadin'!" Marine accused when the song and dance was over. "What's next, pointy? Girl on top?" I decided it was best not to answer that for obvious reasons.

"What's that mean?" Charmy whispered over to Vector.

"I'll tell you when you're older" Vector whispered back.

Shadow's POV

I hope the actual wedding isn't this dull. If wearing a suit weren't bad enough, Faker's up there trying to make everyone laugh with his so-called heartfelt speech and I have to sit in between Marine and the defective detectives. I tried to doze off and sleep through this whole thing, but Charmy's flailing antics kept me up. I had to watch Silver attempt to dance. Not a pretty sight, especially seeing Silver on the receiving end of that dip. Sky giggled slightly at Silver's ineptitude on the dance floor, earning a disapproving look from Blaze's mom.

…_Later at dinner…_

As is customary, or as far as I've heard, the guests to the rehearsal dinner are treated to dinner by the soon-to-be married couple as a chance for the two families to get to know each other better before becoming in-laws. As you may have guessed, almost none of us are even vaguely related, save for Sky and Silver and Blaze and her parents.

It was business as usual; everyone was off enjoying themselves, while I was left alone. This time, I sat on a bluff overlooking the sea, watching the sun start to set.

A lot of memories come to mind just being here; this was the first place I came after waking up from stasis after my fall from the ARK.

"Hey Shadow" it was Sky. She walked over in her dress and sat next to me. "What're you doing?"

"All dressed up with no where else to go, huh?" I asked, casually avoiding her question.

"…Says the guy in a tux sitting on a bluff"

"Touché"

"But here's not a bad place to be, either"

"That's just what I was thinkin' too" Joseph walked over next to me with his eyes on the sunset. "Sky, maybe after the party, we could go back to my place. You sing, right? Maybe I could teach ya a few things" his eyes were trained on her and his mouth was shaped in a snarky smirk. Somehow, it seemed unlikely that he had singing on his mind.

Before I knew what I was doing, I told him off. "What is the matter with you? This is a rehearsal dinner for a wedding, a _wedding,_ and you're going around trying to pick up chicks. Even if Sky were that kind of person, it would still be inappropriate. Sky isn't the kind of person who would go looking for one night stands at her brothers wedding, so go pester someone else"

Joseph just took it in stride. "Glad to see ya too, Jonny. If you remembered after the concert, at the nightclub, you would know you're just as guilty as the rest of us" the look he gave me through his rose coloured glasses was one of mischievousness, sympathy and a little sadness. "I guess I'll leave you two alone fer now"

"What happened at the nightclub?" Sky asked, surprised that I even knew what a nightclub was.

"I have no idea"

Blaze's POV

While everyone was talking with each other, Silver and I slipped out for a moment alone. We walked hand in hand down on the shore where the tide rolled up on the sand. Silver stepped behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist.

"I can't wait 'til were married. How about you?" I whispered up to him.

To my surprise, Silver didn't say anything.

"I was waiting for you to say yes" I turned to face him; he was looking over to the right, down along the shore.

"Is that…Sky and Shadow?" Silver murmured, squinting.

"Yeah, that's them…" I replied, also squinting.

"Guess we weren't the only ones who wanted a moment alone" Silver said, looking the slightest bit worried.

A/N: Again, so sorry for taking so long. The next chapter will be up much sooner.


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: I think now would be a good time to say I have no idea what the hell goes on at bachelor or bachelorette parties, so if my portrayal is far off, don't flip out at me. Thank you, Crazy Muffin Assassin for proofreading.

Sky's POV

The party finally started to draw to a close. The sun was sinking, casting an orange glow over everything.

"Sky! Sky, are you over here?" It was Silver.

"What is it?" I called back.

"Blaze and I are going back to our house. You can come back whenever"

"Actually, I was going to stay with Shadow"

"Ok"

I turned back to Shadow so we could continue our conversation. "So that's how you got mixed up with Slingshots 'n Daisies. I didn't know you drank alcohol"

"Yeah, apparently there's a first time for everything"

"Well, I'm going to go. I don't want to stay out here too late" He stood up and helped me up after. "Let's go"

Blaze's POV

"Wasn't tonight great?" I asked Silver, as we walked through the door.

"Yeah. Will your parents drop by to visit often?"

"Silver! My parents aren't that bad!" I slapped him half playful, half serious on the shoulder. He cracked a smile and started laughing.

"I'm just fooling around. They're not that bad. I mean, they're royalty, so they probably don't have much downtime…"

"True. I never got much downtime being princess, especially in Crisis City"

"If you can make it in Crisis City, you can make it anywhere"

"Well, I'm tired, so I'll go to bed. You can stay up if you want" I yawned.

"Nah, I'm tired too"

I'm not usually one to be timid, but something wasn't sitting right with me, and the way the shadow of the tree outside was cast across the room wasn't helping. It had gotten very windy and it was rattling every possible thing it could rattle. Rain started falling adding to the noise. _I'm never going to get to sleep, _I complained to myself.

I swung my legs off the bed and stood up. I shuddered when my bare feet touched the cold wooden floor. I walked over across the hall to the bathroom and to the medicine cabinet. We have to have some sleeping pills somewhere.

Hiding behind several other objects one would find in a medicine cabinet, I came across what I was looking for. _There. Maybe now I'll be able to get some sleep._ I got back into bed, pulled the covers up to my shoulders and settled in.

Shadow's POV

Have you ever had the feeling that you were being followed? Well, I know I'm being followed. The quickest way to my house, and the easiest for Sky to run through was through the Emerald Forest.

But while we were running through the forest, someone was trying to keep up with us. As you might've guessed, they didn't do a very good job, because I could hear them a mile away. I doubt Sky noticed; she probably would have said something if she did. Whoever it was stumbled their way through every bush there was and tripped over tree roots more often than not.

It was pretty late at night, and I didn't have the energy to find whoever it was and convince them following me was a bad idea, so I went home and locked the door.

"Shadow? Where am I going to sleep?"

"You can sleep in my room…" I said, stifling a yawn. "I'll just sleep on the couch"

"What? No, I can't do that! I'll sleep on the couch"

"No. I'm sleeping on the couch, you're sleeping there" I insisted.

"…Fine…"

…_The next day…_

I woke up to the sound of my refrigerator door slamming. I don't know about anyone else, but that's not a sound I usually wake up to. I sat up, stood up, and walked over to the kitchen ready to beat the living daylights out of whoever was in my house. I crept with my back to the wall; if the intruder is dangerous, I don't want to tip them off.

I whipped around the corner and threw a left hook.

"No! Wait, Sha-" My fist connected with their face, which in turn connected with the wall.

"Joseph," I asked through clenched teeth, "What are you doing in my house?"

"Great goin', Jonny. Ya busted my glasses," he said, frowning as if it was a major catastrophe.

"That won't be the only thing that's busted if you don't explain why you're in my house _right now"_

He held up his hands in a defensive manner. "Ok, ok. I wanted to talk to ya last night, but ya ran off and it was all I could do to bumble my way through that God forsaken jungle back there," he grumbled. "That, an' ya don't have anythin' decent to eat…"

"Get to the point!" I growled.

"Ok! So, I got here and the door was locked, right?"

"Right…"

"Wrong, mate! An' by the way, guitar picks make good lock picks," he grinned slyly as he fished one out of his pocket. "An' as for what I wanted to talk to ya 'bout…"

"Well? Are you going to tell me, or are you going to stand there grinning like an idiot?"

"You like Sky" he said proudly.

An awkward silence made itself present while I concocted my response. "That ridiculous. We're just friends"

"Nuance, mate. Ya said the same thing about Rouge"

"Is that it? Did you break into my house just to accuse me of liking someone?"

"Puh-lease, I can do ya one better. I was gonna accuse ya, then help ya get her"

"And if I deny it?"

"Then I say yer full of it, cause I can bend ya like a G string, conduct ya like a choir, and read ya like a book. An' ya don't watch a sunset with someone unless you like 'em"

I thought it over for a second. I do like Sky and Joseph already owes me, so I don't have to return the favor. "Suppose I do like her. What's in it for you?"

"Shady, I'm a romantic; I live on the stuff. You get the girl, I feel good about myself. Win-Win, right?"

"Deal," I said, extending my hand for him to shake.

"Shadow, are you up yet?" Sky called. _Damn, _I sighed.

"Was that…?" Joseph trailed off, peering around the corner. I yanked him back in case Sky could see him.

"Yes, yes, I'm up. Would you like something to eat? I can cook it for you" I asked from across the house to my bedroom.

"Sure. But you don't have to make it; I can do it myself,"

"No, really, it's no trouble. _Get out of here!_" I whispered to Joseph.

"I take it back mate, you're doing fine on your own. That _is_ your room over there isn't it? Where ya keep yer bed?" I punched him once more for good measure.

"Ok, got it. I'll tell ya how ta get her at the bachelor party, mate" Joseph whispered, running out the door.

After breakfast, we walked to Silver's house. We, by whom I mean Silver and the others, agreed for everyone meet up there for the bachelor/bachelorette parties. "Well, I guess this is where we split up" Sky said, referring to the separate bachelor and bachelorette parties.

"Ok, I'll see you at the wedding tomorrow" I said.

"Shadow, is something wrong?"

"No, I'm fine"

"Ok," she studied me carefully. "I'll see you later then" I knocked on the door, which was opened by Silver.

"Shadow, Sky, great to see you. Ready for the party?" Silver grinned.

"No" I scowled.

"Oh, lighten up Shadow. It could be worse" Blaze purred as she draped an arm around Silver.

…_On the way to the bar…_

Silver's POV

"So, Silver, where exactly did you have in mind for the party?" Sonic asked, walking alongside me. Sonic wasn't the only one curious, because all the others, excepting Shadow and Espio were looking at me attentively.

"Well, I was thinking Freedom Square"

Angus perked up at the mention of the nightclub. "Freedom Square, mate? We went there after the concert, didn't we Shady?"

"No" Shadow mumbled.

"Just ignore Jonny. Freedom Squares' a great place, Silv! You're gonna love it!"

Blaze's POV

"So Blaze, are you ready to go?" Rouge asked.

"Go where?" I responded.

"You'll see. It's a surprise!" Amy said, smiling from ear to ear. She placed a blindfold over my eyes and helped me walk on the door. The girls, with the exception of Sky, dragged me through the streets to their predetermined destination.

"Ok, where are you taking me?" I asked as the forced march was approaching the ten-minute mark.

"Just a minute. We're almost there," They continued leading me, until stopping me abruptly.

"Here we are! You can take of your blindfold!" Amy exclaimed gleefully.

I opened my eyes, but shut them immediately as it was bright and my eyes were unadjusted. When my eyes finally adjusted, I took a look around. There were dozens of shops and ten times as many people. "The mall?" I asked. "What are we doing here?"

"Well," Rouge started. "We were going to take you out for a night on the town…"

"…But we can't go out with you looking like that" Amy finished.

"What's wrong with the way I look?" I asked, starting to feel self-conscious and slightly offended.

"It's not that ya look bad, hun, it's just you could look better" The white bat explained.

"A lot better" Amy added. Sky coughed. We walked into the first boutique we saw.

Immediately, an employee approached us. "Hello, ladies, what can I do for you today?" she said with a smile

"We were wondering if you could help our friend get some new clothes," Rouge said.

"Ok, which one of you will I be helping?" the saleswomen asked.

"Blaze," Amy said, pointing at me.

"Well…oh my" Her hand rose to cover her mouth and she stood there, gaping at me.

I put my hands on my hips. "Do I really look _that_ bad?" Her eyes scrolled from my face to my feet, then back again before putting on a sympathetic smile.

"No, dear, not bad. It's just you could look better. Here, why don't you come with me?" I left the others behind and followed the saleswomen past several racks of clothing to the back of the store. Every so often, she would reach out and grab an outfit and carry it with her.

"Try these on," she said, handing me the whole stack.

"All of these?" I asked, straining my back to support their weight.

"Yes, all of them" I walked into the changing room carrying the stack of clothes. This is exactly why I never go shopping; the changing rooms are closets, and sometimes barely that. I stumbled around for a good five minutes before I was able to change out of my clothes and put the first dress on. I emerged from the changing room and waited for the saleswomen's feed back.

The dress was purple, a few shades darker than my fur. I liked it, except for the fact it was so tight it might've been painted on me. Though I thought it looked pretty nice, the saleswomen, or Margaret, as I came to know her disagreed. She said it looked too similar to what I came in wearing and to wear something skintight, you have to have the "right curves", whatever that means.

Three outfits later, we were still stuck at square one. This is starting to become a real drag.

"This is the last outfit I'm trying on," I warned her. This dress was looser and less constricting without being baggy. It was red and went down to just above my knees.

"How's this?" I asked, stepping out of that god-awful changing room for the last time.

"Great! It looks great! Now you can leave," Margaret exclaimed, taking me by the arm.

"A-are you sure?" Everything she said about me previously had ranged from neutral to negative.

"Yes, yes, yes. Red is definitely your colour!" She literally pushed me to the register.

"Ok, that'll be 120 dollars," My jaw dropped. I held my breath as I reached for my credit card.

"Don't worry hun, I got it" Rouge said, as she slapped her credit card down on the counter.

"Now that you look the part, the next order of business is to go out on the town and have a great time," Rouge stated. "Ever been to a club? Or did your parents just keep you locked away in a tower?"

I scowled. "I've never been to a club. And that's a stereotype. Just because I'm a princess doesn't mean my parents locked me up in a tower"

"Well, there's a first time for everything, and when's a better time than a bachelorette party? And besides, I know this great club where celebrities have been known to visit. Let's go" Rouge's heels clicked against the floor and eventually the sidewalk as she lead the way.

Silver's POV

The party's been great so far. Everyone's been getting along; Shadow hasn't so much as threatened anyone. Although, he has been hanging out with Joseph, which is abnormal in itself, coupled with the fact that Shadow doesn't put up with people in general, especially musicians.

Joseph is something else. I've never seen anyone drink as much as him and be completely unaffected, not even Rouge.

Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, Scratch, and Neil have been talking over drinks and fooling around in general. Angus and Paul were hanging out with the Chaotix.

Originally, when were still looking for a band to play our wedding, the Chaotix stepped forward claiming they were in a band. Well, it turns out they were telling the truth and Angus was giving them a few pointers.

Throughout the few hours we've been here, I've noticed some girls checking me out. Rather than partying and hanging out with my friends, like I'm supposed to, I've been zoning out during conversations and thinking about it. See, I've never thought of myself as attractive to the opposite gender or anything like that, so this was an intriguing experience.

And the party went on. We had a few drinks, listened to the band, stuff like that. Every so often, I would glance over at those girls. I caught them looking at me several times and then they would pretend they weren't looking at me.

Finally, one of them had the nerve to come talk to me. An auburn coloured fox walked over to the bar where I was and sat uncomfortably close to me. She was wearing a halter-top and short shorts. Now when I say short, I mean _short_. Like so short that my underwear is longer. They leave absolutely nothing to the imagination. "Hey, what's a cute hedgehog like you doing here alone?" she asked me.

"Y-you think I'm cute?" Where I come from, they're not a lot of options romance wise, so you take what you can get. I've never once had a girl, aside from Sky and Blaze just come up and start talking to me, much less say I'm cute.

She smiled a sly smile; the kind of smile that makes you wonder what her angle is. "Why wouldn't I? It's not everyday you find someone as attractive and obviously decent as you," A dance song started playing in the background. "Care to dance?"

I shook my head. "I'm sorry. I can't,"

She gave another sly smile. "Don't know how? Don't worry; I can teach you," She stood up and motioned for me to get up too.

"No, it's not that. You see, I'm here for my bachelor party and I love my fiancée"

She thought for a moment. "Well, it _is_ your bachelor party; what your fiancée doesn't know won't hurt her" the fox said coyly as she leaned over.

"I don't think that's a good idea," I replied, backing away.

"You sure? You're getting married, hitched, tied down for the rest of your life. This is your last chance to cut loose. Lighten up and have some fun,"

"Didn't you hear me? I said I love my-mph" She kissed me! Immediately, I pushed her away. I lost my balance and fell backwards off the stool I was sitting on, onto the floor. Someone wolf-whistled. The band stopped playing. I could feel peoples' eyes on me. It seemed like the whole club was watching me. If Blaze saw me right now, I would be dead.

"What the _hell_ are you doing?" a voice shouted from across the club, near the door. It wasn't just any voice; it was a painfully familiar voice. I was so struck with fear that I couldn't get up off the floor. I am going to die. My heart, which was up until now beating like a snare drum, had stopped and my blood froze.

Blaze.


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: Thank you, Crazy Muffin Assassin, for editing, proofreading, and the idea for the bar fight.

Silver's POV

"B-blaze? What're you doing here?" I stuttered. Blaze said nothing as she walked over with an angry scowl on her face. About halfway between the door and me, I realized just how bad the situation truly was. She was wearing a dress I had never seen before. And she was wearing make up; she never wears make up. She comes here all dressed up and she sees me being kissed by another women.

Then Joseph intervened. It might have being alcohol's influence dampening his decision-making ability, bravery, or just plain stupidity. Whatever it was, it overruled his common sense and survival instinct.

"Wait, wait!" he said, holding up his hands. "Don't kill 'em yet. Hear me out, then-" But before he could finish, she pushed him out of the way and he hit the wall with a dull thud.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Blaze hissed so quietly I could barely hear it. I've never seen her this mad before. I would rather do anything else than be on the receiving end of Blaze's anger.

"B-blaze I-I can explain," I couldn't hold still; my hands were shaking and I was suddenly drenched in sweat.

"Not you! I'll deal with you later," she growled. Blaze turned to the fox and glared at her. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

The fox smiled coyly and calmly said, "I can see why you're marrying him. He's a great kisser." Wrong answer! Saying something like that is about as stupid as banging two pieces of plutonium together, or pulling a fake switchblade on Shadow.

Blaze's fist clenched and her jaw tightened. Her hands started smoldering and tears welled in her eyes.

"Stay away from my fiancé, you whore," Blaze growled as she sprung forward. The fox had little time to react as Blaze's fist collided with her face. She flew back into the bar holding her now bleeding nose.

"Y-you bitch! What the hell was that for?" she shouted.

"You know damn well what it was for!" Blaze shouted back. The fox picked up the nearest thing she could throw at Blaze, which happened to be my drink, and heaved it at her head.

Blaze leaned to the side, and the bottle of beer sailed over her shoulder, avoiding her entirely, but hitting some innocent bystander instead.

The person sitting next to the guy who got hit with the bottle started laughing profusely. The guy who got hit with the bottle didn't find his situation all that funny and decided that the appropriate course of action was to punch out the person laughing at him.

And with that, all Hell broke loose. Fights popped up everywhere. It was as if everyone secretly wanted to beat up everyone else in the club. And at that exact moment, the floor was no longer a safe place for me to be lying down on.

The safest place seemed to be outside, so I made a beeline for the door. It was slow going and full of peril. I caught many stray punches, mostly aimed at my face. When I made it to the door, I shot out of the club like a bullet from a forty-five.

After the adrenaline wore off, the pain kicked in. I limped into the alley next to the club and took a seat. I had several bruises and I bit my lip. I leaned my head back against the wall. Jeez, I really screwed up. Blaze is mad at me and _everyone_ was there to see it. I'm getting _married_ tomorrow for crying out loud. I'm definitely sleeping on the couch tonight.

_I'm such an idiot!_ I thought to myself. _Damn, the only thing that would make this worse is if Blaze's parents were there._

"Silver? Are you out here?" It was Blaze. I was tempted to not say anything. Not because I didn't want to talk to her, but because I'm not entirely sure she's not going to hurt me. I wrestled with my conscience for a moment, but in the end, I decided to answer her.

"I'm over here," I said, raising my hand so she could find me. Blaze walked over and sat down next to me.

"If you're going to hurt me or yell at me, just get it over with." Blaze smiled.

"I'm not going to hurt you." I relaxed a little. I've read my fair share of books with fickle irony, and from my experience, when it's not a fight, it's shouting.

"But aren't you mad?"

"I guess I'm a little mad, but I can't blame you for being attractive, can I?"

Shadow's POV _several minutes earlier…_

"What the hell are you doing?" a voice shouted from across the club. Wait a minute. That sounded like…Blaze! Sure enough, when I looked in the direction of the door, Blaze and the other girls who went with her to her bachelorette party were there. I'd say Silver's screwed.

"Uh oh, Silver's in trouble," Joseph crooned. "Better go help 'em out." Joseph walked in front of Blaze, only to be roughly shoved out of the way. Blaze shouted at Silver and the fox for a bit before punching the fox. The fox retaliated and threw Silver's drink, which missed by a mile and hit someone else. The victim of the drink punched the guy sitting next to him. Fights erupted from all over the place.

Joseph, in the midst of all the fighting, with the grace of a jungle cat and the obliviousness of a stoned hippie, walked up to the offending fox and started flirting with her. He just walked over, through a veritable mine field of thrown objects and people falling on the ground. He stepped over fallen fighters and leaned out of the way of anything that might hurt.

Just like the way he went, he came back, as nonchalant as ever. How does he do that? "Dude, this is yer perfect opportunity. Sky is right over there."

"What?" I couldn't hear him over the racket the other people were making.

Joseph leaned in a little closer. "Sky's over there. Go up to her and do what I taught you to do. Maybe the two of ya can sneak out durin' the commotion."

"I'm not talking with a British accent. She already knows what my voice sounds like." A person staggered backwards and fell onto the table Joseph and I were sitting at, effectively breaking it.

"Ok, fine, forget the accent. Just go talk to her," But just as I was about to get her attention, Angus ran into me. I lost my balance and fell over, slamming my head on the floor.

"Angus! What the hell was that for?" I shouted. I got back to my feet.

"Don't get yer knickers in a twist!" Angus shouted back. "An' it was that _prick_ that pushed me!"

"Well, go away! I'm…" I growled. I looked over just in time to see Sky leave followed shortly by the rest of our friends. "Damn it," The diminutive guitarist stormed off to teach that "prick" a lesson he'll not soon forget.

Joseph walked over to me. "It take it it didn't go well?" he asked, gesturing to the fact that I was lying on the ground.

"It didn't happen. Angus landed on me."

"Just like Townson in '79," Joseph muttered. "Good times, mate. Guess you'll hafta talk to 'er later."

I sighed. This is becoming more trouble than it's worth.

Silver's POV

"So _that's_ what happened," Blaze said in response to my explanation of the incident at the club.

"Point of view is a bitch, isn't it?"

"Oh, so that was her name?" Blaze and I each let a small smile show at her statement.

"Silver! Blaze! Where are you guys?" It was Sonic and the others.

"Over here," I replied. I stood up and then helped Blaze up.

"There you guys are. What did you do, get lost?" Sonic grinned.

"Nah, it's just outside seemed to be a safer place to be. I don't like bar fights much."

"Well, the others are already starting to leave…"

"You guys go on. We'll catch up in a minute," Blaze said, putting a hand on my shoulder. Sonic flashed a devious smile as he walked off.

When Sonic was out of earshot, we started talking again. "I can't believe it's tomorrow," Blaze sighed.

"I know. Are you nervous?"

"A little. You?"

I pushed a few loose quills out of my eyes. "God, I'm so nervous, I can hardly focus on_anything."_

"Oi! Pointy!" I grimaced. The accent and annoying nickname is utterly unmistakable. It could only be Marine. "Didya see which way the others went? I think they ditched me."

Blaze rolled her eyes. "They went that way."

"Thanks Blazey! Catch ya later!" Marine called as she ran of in the direction the others went.

We got back shortly after everyone else. We talked for an hour or two and they left. God, I'm exhausted. Wearily, I climbed the staircase to our room and crashed on the bed. The alarm clock next to my bed read quarter to twelve.

Blaze walked in wearing her nightgown, looking equally tired. "Only a few more hours left," she mumbled.

"I can't wait," I said as I got underneath the sheets.

"I love you," Blaze said, as she lay next to me. I wrapped an arm around her, pulled her closer and kissed her gently. I could feel her heartbeat beating in sync with mine.

"I love you too."

A/N: Next chapter: the wedding.


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: I'm going to warn you right now; there's gonna be a fair amount of swearing in this chapter. Thank you, Crazy Muffin Assassin, for editing and proofreading.

Silver's POV

The morning went something like this: I woke up, and instead of finding Blaze there, I found my soon to be Father-in-law sitting on the corner of the bed. After getting over the initial shock, he informed me about a certain wedding tradition that says it's bad luck to see the bride before the ceremony. From there, we met up with the other guys and headed down to the beach, where we set up the alter, folding chairs for the guests, and electricity for the band.

While Blaze was off with her mother and her brides' maids, I was at Tails' place. The wedding is at three and you're supposed to be there by two-thirty; we were ready by twelve-forty five. We decided to wait at Tails' house, as it was not far from Seaside Hill. While the others were talking, I took the time to daydream; to picture my future and remember my past, and stuff like that.

It seems just like yesterday I met Blaze.

It was just one of those days when I would fly around Crisis city, looking for some way to successfully defeat Iblis. Even when I was young, maybe Tails' age, I fought Iblis. I was flying low, next to another ruined building when I heard a noise other than the usual burning and crumbling of the ruined city. It almost sounded like… crying.

A soft whimpering sound wafted through the rubble of a once tall skyscraper.

"Hello? Are you ok?" I called out, landing and searching for the person in question. The only response was more sobbing.

At this point in time, my psychic powers were relatively weak, so I had to rely on manual exertion. Frantically, I started digging through the rubble on the assumption that the person under it was hurt.

"Where are you?" I shouted again.

"L-leave me alone!" a voice said, in between sobs. "It's not my fault!"

"I only…want…to help," I grunted as I shoved heavy slabs of concrete aside. Crouched in a corner was a girl, a purple kitten, no older than me. Her dress was tattered. Her stockings were run. She was covered in scrapes, scratches and bruises, like she'd been beaten.

"It's not my fault!" she repeated, crying harder and shielding her face. "Please, don't hurt me!"

"I don't want to hurt you," I said quietly, holding my hands up. I took a slow step towards her. When she saw me move, she jumped up and ran away.

"No, wait!" but she had already run out. I started to run after her, only to find that she was faster than me. I could only watch as she darted around the corner of a building. When I heard her scream, I ran even faster. She needed my help.

Without thinking, I shot around the corner. There were four other aggressive looking mobians walking towards her, forcing her into a corner.

When she bolted to the side, the one on the far left grabbed her arm and yanked her back.

"You're not getting away that easily," the apparent leader said as the other two restrained her further.

"Let me go! I didn't do anything!" she pleaded.

"Didn't do anything? _Didn't do anything?"_ he shouted. "It's your fault that monster is here, you damn fire cat! You brought it here!" He punched her and she started crying again.

"But on the other hand, if we kill you," he said, while pulling out a small knife. "The monster will go away too"

Her beautiful golden eyes widened with fear as the dirty metal blade worked its way under her chin. I have to help her; I can't let those jerks kill her.

"Leave her alone!" I yelled, running over to the others. When they didn't listen to me, I hurled a rock at the leader. The rock hit his mark, and his attention turned to me.

"That's it. You're dead," he pulled the knife away from the cat's throat and walked over to me.

"No!" the cat-girl screamed. "Don't hurt him! It's me you want!"

"He should have thought of that before he threw that rock," the tiger snarled. I put up my hands and prepared to get my ass kicked. He kicked out my legs and I fell on my back. He flipped the knife so he was holding it backhanded and brought it down on my gut.

At the last second, I stopped the knife with my psychic powers. The knife didn't puncture, so my attacker tried again, only to be stopped once more.

"W-what are you?" he stammered, dropping the knife and backing away.

"Your worst nightmare," I thrust out my hands and sent the tiger flying across the street. As soon as he got back to his feet, he took off, promptly followed by the other three. I walked over to the girl to see if she was hurt too badly.

"Are you all right?" I asked extending my hand to help her get up. She hesitantly took it. She winced when her left foot touched the ground. I took her arm and wrapped it around my neck to support her.

"I-I am now. T-thank you for saving me" she stuttered.

"I'm Silver. What's your name?"

"Blaze" she said quietly.

"Do you have anywhere to stay?"

They weren't exactly good times, but they were certainly memorable ones.

"Silver!" Sonic hollered. "Stop daydreaming; its time to get you married!" I wasn't sure quite how to respond to that, so I just nodded. The eight of us headed down to the beach.

The priest was standing at the alter, there was a few rows of folding chairs scattered about, and a stack of guitar amplifiers with a cherry red Fender Telecaster leaning up against it. The sky was clear blue and the water was clear. The sun was shining and the sand was soft and silky.

Blaze's parents, Marine and Cream were already here as well. The band was nowhere to be seen. Neither was the bridal party. Knowing Blaze and the others, they'll be here on time. Knowing Joseph and company, they'll get here by the skin of their teeth.

Worried and increasingly nervous, I glanced at my watch. Two forty-three. Only about left fifteen minutes until I'm married. Then there's the reception tonight, and Blaze and I'll be in Ireland by tomorrow.

Right behind me, someone said, "You seem tense. Need some advice?" I jumped and whipped around. It was Joseph.

"You jackass! You scared the crap outta me! Don't do that," I rambled.

"I'll take that as I yes," the black fox replied, casually cleaning his sunglasses with his tee shirt. "Relax."

I listened attentively for the rest of his advice. When it didn't come, I spoke up. "That's it?"

He put his sunglasses back on. "What, ya thought I had a speech prepared fer this or somethin'? Look, Blazes loves ya, so relax. If she didn't, she wouldn't be here,"

"She's here?" I asked, looking around for her.

Joseph rolled his eyes. "My bad. She ain't here, but she _is_ over that next rise scared outta her wits,"

"She's…" I trailed off.

"Yea, we saw her on the way here, an' she's as nervous as you, so relax. Gotta go; I'll talk ta ya later, after yer hitched," He turned and walked over to the amplifier to help Angus reach the knobs at the top of it.

Finally it was time. I was standing at the alter, next to the priest with my hands behind my back. First, Sonic walked up the aisle in his tuxedo and stood next to me. Then, Sky walked down the aisle and stood on the other side of the alter.

The bridesmaids and groomsmen walked to the alter in pairs. Shadow and Amy walked down, followed by Knuckles in Rouge. Charmy came next, carrying a pillow with two rings resting on it. Last, but not least, was Cream, who dropped rose petals behind her.

Finally, Angus started playing the wedding march, adding the occasional pinch harmonic and bend to the end of the arpeggio.

Blaze, with her father holding her hand, walked down the aisle. Although she tried not to show it, and the veil certainly helped, she was clearly as nervous as I was.

Oh, God, she looks beautiful. She was wearing a plain white dress. The veil she was wearing obscured her facial features slightly. She was smiling that beautiful smile; the one that makes me go weak at the knees. She was carrying a bouquet of lilacs and purple roses. She arrived at the alter and stopped.

Angus finished playing the wedding march and the priest began to speak. "Dearly beloved, we are gathered her today to join these two lovers, Silver in Blaze, in the eternal light of holy matrimony. If anyone has any reason why these two should not be married, speak now, or forever hold your peace."

Nothing. Not so much as a cricket. The only things I could hear were the sounds of my heart and waves lapping on the beach.

"Well, now that that's-"

"These two aren't going to be married," an eerie, dark voice said. "Because they're going to die right now," Everyone, including Blaze and myself, looked around for the source of the voice, even though we had a pretty decent guess as to whom it was.

Shadow was the first to react. "Come out in the open, you bastard so we can kill you and get on with the wedding!"

"Simmer down, Shadow," Mephiles crooned. The sky became dark and thick clouds covered up the sun. An enervating mist rolled in off of the sea. Out of the mist, Mephiles' figure emerged, like Death out of Hell's Bells. He sauntered down the aisle as if he belonged. I stepped in front of Blaze and held out my arms in a defensive manner.

He almost made it to the end of the aisle before anyone challenged him. Blaze's father stood up and drew his sword, pointing it at Mephiles' throat. "You will not lay a hand on my daughter, nor will you touch my son-in-law,"

"Get out of my way, old man, or I'll kill you too. Believe me, I won't lose a wink of sleep over it,"

"I will not sacrifice my family for my own well-being. En gardé, demon." Mephiles swiped his claws at my soon to be father-in-law's face. As fast as lighting, Blaze's dad blocked the attack and took the offensive.

Strike, parry, strike, parry. That's how it went until, claws on rapier, Blaze's dad tripped over the quarter-inch cable connecting Angus' guitar to the amp. The cord caught his foot and he fell on his face, dropping his sword in the process. Mephiles lunged and stabbed the sandy ground where the old cat had been only a second ago. For an old guy, he can really move.

"Oi! Why don't ya pick on someone yer own size, ya fucker?" Angus shouted. He held his Telecaster by the neck and swung it like a six-stringed mace. The cherry red guitar struck Mephiles in the side and knocked him over. Angus swung again, but Mephiles grabbed it and yanked it away. With an evil look in his eyes, he picked Angus up by his collar.

"What were you saying about picking on someone your own size?"

Angus scowled at him and spat in his face. "Bite me."

"Why you-" But before Mephiles could do anything, a loud bang, a gunshot, interrupted him. Everyone looked around for the source of the gunshot. Shadow was standing with a smoking pistol in his hand.

Mephiles' grip on Angus relinquished as he clutched his injured bicep. A black, oil-like liquid seeped from the wound instead of blood.

"You have a gun? Who brings a gun to a wedding?" Blaze's mom fumed. Shadow refrained from speaking and kept his gun trained on Mephiles.

"So what now, Shadow? Are you going to shoot me? Again? Are you going to kill me?" Mephiles sneered.

"Shaddup." Shadow replied eloquently. Mephiles snapped his fingers and disappeared. Not the usual seeping-into-the-ground type disappearance, but disappearing like smoke in the wind.

Suddenly, there was a shout, a scream, a hard shove from behind, and I found myself face down in the sand.

After I got all the sand out of my eyes, I saw possibly the most nerve-wracking sight ever; Mephiles was holding Blaze hostage. He had an arm around her neck, claws at her throat, and a chaos emerald in hand. Blaze's struggling against Mephiles had little to no affect. My fist clenched. Can Mephiles possibly stoop _any_ lower? It seems that every time he pops up he's reach a new level of .

"It's amazing how easy it is to distract you lot. I'm very tempted to say 'checkmate'."

"Let Blaze go!" I shouted.

"Gee, let me think about that…No." Shadow raised his pistol and carefully took aim.

"Shadow, stop!" Reluctantly, he lowered his gun. I mean, sure he's a crack shot, but I don't want my fiancée in the line of fire.

"Well, if you don't mind, I'll be leaving, and I'm taking the bride with me. Don't follow us." The red chaos emerald began to glow. Against my better judgment, I ran after them. My fingertips just barely grazed Blaze's outstretched hand before she disappeared into thin air.

"Damn it!" I yelled. I punched the ground. I got back to my feet, regained my composure, and started walking.

"Charmy, give me the rings." Charmy handed me the two rings, which I proceeded to place in my pocket.

"Silver, where are you going?" Sky called after me.

"To get my wife back."


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: Thank you, Crazy Muffin Assassin, for proofreading and editing.

"Where do you think you're going?" Shadow asked, standing up.

"I thought I made that clear." I growled back.

Shadow rolled his eyes. "Sorry. Let me rephrase that: Where do you think you're going without us?"

I took me a minute to process that. Shadow _never_ goes out of his way to help _anyone._ "You want to help me?"

"You're a real genius, aren't you? Do you have any idea where Mephiles went?" I shook me head.

"Well, I do. Follow me." Shadow turned and started walking in the opposite direction.

"What are the rest of us supposed to do?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah! I don't wanna sit around worried while my brother goes off into battle!" Sky chimed in.

"Stay here. We'll be back soon."

"And if you're not?" Sky asked. She stood up and walked over to us. She sounded worried, and was sounding more so with every word.

"We will come back. I promise," said Shadow. Sky cringed, but backed off.

"Ok. I trust you," she whispered. She returned to her seat and rested her head in her hands.

"Let's hurry; whatever Mephiles is planning, you can bet it's better to stop him sooner rather than later." Shadow took out his chaos emerald and held it over his head. In a flash of green light, we disappeared.

Blaze's POV

I felt Silver's hand graze mine just before Mephiles kidnapped me. As soon as my feet touched the ground, I took off running. I didn't get very far before Mephiles caught me. On a side note, I don't recommend running in high heels.

"Don't run, my dear. This city is riddled with canals, and we all know how much cats hate water. It would be a shame if you drowned before I finished with you," Mephiles said. Damn, he was right; two feet in front of me was one of these canals.

"I suggest you follow me if you don't want to drown," I figured I could fight back later, somewhere where there's less water, so I went along with it.

"That's what I thought," Mephiles smirked. He stopped at a large set of black marble stairs turned to me.

"Well? Go on." He poked my back with his claws as further indication to keep moving. Reluctantly, I kept walking up the long staircase. On either side of the staircase were large, black marble columns, casting long shadows and obscuring the buildings' insides.

The building was open and unobstructed. There were few walls, just columns holding up the roof. The center of the floor was a mosaic picture, which looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't quite think of why.

The entire building was dark; it was the evening in whatever part of the world we were. In the back was an alter, or a shrine of some sort.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"The temple of Mephiles," Mephiles responded. The demon waved his hand and various braziers and torches around the temple simultaneously lit, illuminating the room. The majority of the temple was constructed out of polished black marble. You could see your reflection in just about everything you looked at.

"…Now, you're probably wondering why I brought you here, of all places," Mephiles started talking again.

I nodded.

"I brought you here because you have something I need."

"That's ridiculous! What could I possibly have that you need? I don't have any Chaos Emeralds, and you can't use the Sol Emeralds. Why do you need me?"

Mephiles remained calm in spite of my outburst. "Have you ever wondered about your fire? Do you know where it came from? Neither of your parents, nor any of your ancestors possessed the ability to wield fire, so why were you suddenly endowed with it?"

My heart dropped into my stomach. I couldn't talk, either to attempt to answer his question, or utter a profanity.

"When you were merely an infant, your parents, the king and queen, were presented with the opportunity to rid the world of Iblis. The catch? They had to sacrifice their daughter to imprison Iblis. They would use their only daughter, the heiress to the throne, as a living prison. The best part was if she died, so would Iblis."

The demon's words were like a slap in the face. "Y-you're lying! Iblis wasn't imprisoned! Silver and I fought it!" I shouted.

"On the contrary, I have no reason to lie. When the sealing took place, something went wrong. The process was, erm, _disrupted_ and only a small portion of Iblis was sealed. You were left with the curse of pyrokinesis."

"B-but why a-are you telling me?" I asked.

"Because," he said diabolically, "I intend to take it back." The six chaos emeralds that were currently in his possession floated out and around him. "There's just one more thing; I was only able to gather six of the seven. If I had the seventh, this whole event would be much less painful for you."

Suddenly, I couldn't move. I felt entirely numb. The Chaos Emeralds floated over to me, forming a loose circle around my midsection. The magic gems started spinning, slowly at first, but increasing in speed.

Is it hot in here, or is it just me? I started sweating and the air became thin. Then, I felt a stabbing pain in the center of my chest. My knees buckled, but I couldn't fall. Now I was burning up. Normally, fire and heat have little affect on me, but now, my normal protection abandoned me.

I started seeing spots. I couldn't tell if I was delirious or the spots were distortions from the heat. The pain in my chest only got worse. I screamed in agony until finally, a blossom of fire erupted out of me into the air.

Mephiles extended his hand and the fire wound around it like a snake and sunk into his hand. He began to glow a horrible orange glow. The chaos emeralds dulled in colour until they black and drained of power. They dropped to the ground, shortly followed by me. I looked up at Mephiles with a much hate as I could muster.

"It looks like I don't need you anymore, princess," Mephiles said. He snapped his fingers and a small flame appeared on his index finger. "How ironic would it be if you burned to death?"

I closed my eyes and prepared to die, when someone shouted from across the room. The voice, which I instantly recognized as Silver's, sounded angry. I've only seen Silver lose his temper once or twice before. This isn't going to end well.

"Leave her alone!"

Silver's POV

Looks like we made it just in time; Mephiles was just about to kill Blaze. Shadow teleported us to the right city, but the _wrong _place within the city. We had to do a fair bit of running and searching before we found Blaze and Mephiles. I saw Blaze tumble to the ground and Mephiles catch something in his hand.

"Leave her alone!" I shouted. I raised a hand, and with my psychic powers, shot a nearby rock at the demon.

The rock struck Mephiles in the shoulder. He turned and addressed me. "Oh, Silver, so good of you to join us. And Shadow, too. I suppose I'll kill you first; you can actually fight back,"

Blaze whimpered. She seemed…weak, like she'd had the life sucked out of her.

"Although, I suppose it doesn't matter who I kill first; you'll see each other in Hell soon enough," Mephiles raised his claws in preparation to slit Blaze's throat. I grabbed his hand and wrenched it away violently.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Mephiles warned. Suddenly, his hand burst into flames, effectively burning my hand. While I was tending to Blaze and my injured hand, Shadow took the initiative to continue the fight.

I dropped to my knees next to my fiancée. "Blaze, are you ok?"

"Yes, I'm all right," she managed to say, dazed. She sounded tired and strained, like she'd just run a marathon through a desert. Each word was said slowly and quietly.

Without sounding cliché, her mouth said yes, but her eyes screamed no. _She's lying,_ I thought dejectedly. I can tell because she rarely every lies to begin with, she's a terrible liar in general, and she sounded like she'd just completed a full cardio workout. _I'll ask her later,_ I made a mental note. Then I noticed the blackened, powerless chaos emeralds littering the ground around her. _Damnit_._ What have we gotten ourselves into?_

Shadow's POV

Mephiles has learned a few new tricks since last time. For starters, he's somehow learned to utilize fire. As a result, I'm covered in burns and my quills are singed. The tuxedo I'd been forced to wear for the wedding was burned beyond recognition, much less repair. _I'll apologize to Silver later._

"What, Shadow, are you getting tired already?" Mephiles taunted. I dragged myself back up off the ground and faced the demon.

"Please, I'm just warming up," I scoffed. I glanced over at the temple where Silver and Blaze were. _Hurry up, damnit. I can't hold him off forever._ I reached down to my wrists and started twisting off one of the rings.

"Going for your inhibitor rings? You must be desperate." As I unclipped my rings, a small fire ignited in the palm of Mephiles' hand. The fire burned brightly and it circled the demon. He jumped and the fire swirled around him in a tornado. What he did struck me as vaguely familiar. I didn't have much time to think about it as Mephiles punched me in the jaw. I fell backwards, with my head hanging over the edge of one of the canals. I tried to get up, but Mephiles planted his shoe on my chest before I could.

"I wonder if you can swim. These canals can be pretty deep," I grabbed Mephiles' ankle and twisted. Mephiles fell beside me and his hands immediately wrapped around my throat. He forced my head under the murky water. I struggled to get back to the surface, but his grip remained adamant.

In desperation, I kicked his chest, sending him over my head, into the canal, pulling me with him as well. Thanks to our heavy, metal skates, we both sunk like stones to the bottom of the canal.

We continued to fight several feet underwater, until Mephiles punched me in the throat. Whatever air I had left escaped through my lips and flitted up to the surface. To avoid drowning, I took out my Chaos Emerald and transported myself up to dry land.

I turned over, coughed and forced the grungy canal water out of my lungs. Mephiles followed shortly, surging out of the canal with a wave of water. Wherever the demon set foot, the water around it evaporated. He kept walking, his metal skates clanking against the stone walkways, until he was standing over me.

"Looks like the end, Shadow," Mephiles smirked. I made a rude gesture with my hand as I kicked out his legs. My hands wrapped around his throat before he hit the ground. Mephiles kicked me in the gut, but I refused to release my grip.

I did however lose my grip when the demon shot a small jet of fire at my face. For the most part, it missed; I was able to move out of the way. But part of it did graze my left cheek. My hands flew to my face and Mephiles' foot crashed into my stomach.

Sky's POV _…Meanwhile…_

I can't take this anymore; the suspense is killing me. Silver and Shadow have been gone for an hour and a half. I could tell from other people's body language that they felt the same. Joseph and the band seemed to be the most relaxed. Joseph was lying on his back, looking at the sky. The others were just sitting around. Blaze's parents were arguing heatedly. Marine was clinging to Tails' side, as if he would leave any moment. Knuckles was punching at a large boulder. Espio was meditating, Vector was listening to his music, and Charmy was eating candy. Rouge and Amy were trying to calm Cream down, who was hysterical.

Sonic was especially tense. He was up and pacing back and forth, with no sign of stopping.

Finally, I'd had enough. "That's it. I'm not sitting around and waiting for my brother to come back." I got up and started fast walking to the northeast.

"Wait! I wanna help too!" Sonic called after me.

"As long as you can keep up," I replied. Together we ran in the general direction of wherever Silver was. Within a few miles, we broke the sound barrier.

"How do you know we're going in the right direction?" Sonic shouted, after a few hundred miles. "I don't want to waste any more time than I have to."

"It's a twin thing!" I shouted back. The temperature became cooler as we progressed farther to the north. Finally, we arrived at our destination; a Mediterranean city called Soleanna. The place was made of stone, polished granite or marble and would be quite beautiful on any other occasion.

The entire city is roughly thirty-six square miles and neatly organized. All the canals and streets are setup in a lattice fashion and named appropriately according to their position.

"Oh, hey, I know this place! The guys and I caused a bit of trouble back in 2006," Sonic proclaimed. "Lovely city, terrible water. I nearly drowned the last time I was here,"

"Yeah, cool story. We still need to find Silver and Shadow," I said. I started running towards the center of the city. On the way there we passed a structure made of black marble. I wouldn't have thought anything of it, but a large plume of fire attracted my attention. _If there's fire, there's Blaze and if Blaze is there, then Silver and Shadow can't be far behind,_ I thought. We changed course and ran over to the black marble building.

We rounded the corner to find Mephiles standing over Shadow and Silver tending to Blaze.

"Hey! Leave Faker alone!" Sonic shouted.

"Yeah!" I agreed.

"You," Mephiles sneered. "I killed you once, and I can kill you again,"

"I'd like to see you try! And how do you get off copying someone who's already copying me anyway?" the Blue Blur taunted. Mephiles pointed his hand towards Sonic and shot a spire of purple energy at him. Sonic barely had time to move out of the way. Instead of piercing his chest, it merely scraped his arm.

"Tch, is that the best you can do?" Sonic asked, inspecting his arm. Sonic rolled into a ball and shot out like a bullet at Mephiles. He struck Mephiles dead center and knocked onto his back.

While Sonic was fighting Mephiles with Shadow, I walked over to where Silver and Blaze were. Blaze was lying down in the middle of the floor and Silver was sitting next to her looking very worried.

"Hey, Silver, you ok?" I asked.

"Sky?" Silver sniffled. "I-I thought I told you to stay at Seaside Hill,"

His eyes were red. He looked like he was about to cry. "You're right," I frowned, putting my hands on my hips. "I'm sorry for worrying about you. Fill me in. What did I miss?"

"Well, the Chaos Emeralds are drained, Mephiles has somehow learned to manipulate fire, and Blaze is nearly comatose," his voice quavered on the last part. "Watch Blaze; I'm going to fight Mephiles. Make sure she doesn't move around too much. " His expression hardened and his hands clenched into fists. He started glowing cyan as he walked over towards the side of the canal where the others were fighting.

My attention turned back to Blaze, who was starting to get up. "Hey, Blaze, how're you feeling?" I asked.

Blaze groaned and placed a hand on the side of her head. "Stop shouting," Jeez, she really is out of it. Suddenly, her eyes focused and she snapped to attention.

"Sky! Sky? What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Sonic and I just got here. We came to help fight," Blaze's eyes widened.

"Silver! I've got to help him! Mephiles will kill him if I don't!" She got up quickly, only to stumble and fall back down.

"Whoa, Blaze, slow down. I think Shadow, Silver and Sonic got it covered," I helped her back into a sitting position. "And you're in no condition to fight anyways."

"No! You don't understand!"

"Blaze, _you_ don't understand. Silver told me to make sure you don't move around."

"If it were any other day, I would give you such a burn," Blaze growled.

"Well what's stopping you, _princess?"_ Blaze shot me a sharp glare. She knew that I knew I'd struck a nerve.

"Because I can't," she whispered. "Mephiles took my fire."

"How can he take your fire? I thought it was hereditary."

Apparently, I said something to offend her. "My fire is _not_ hereditary! It's a _curse!"_ Blaze huffed.

"Then why are you so mad? You don't have to put up with it anymore."

"I'd rather have to put up with it than to have it be used to kill my husband and friends!"

Shadow's POV

I slammed into the marble staircase and groaned. We're making absolutely no progress against Mephiles. No matter how hard we hit him, he kept coming back. I'm soaked in blood and starting to tire. The burst of energy from my inhibitor rings and adrenaline from the fight are starting to wear off.

Silver landed on the ground next to me. "This is becoming a drag. We need to end this soon, or we're all gonna die." Unfortunately, he's right.

"Silver, I think I have an idea…"

Silver's POV

The three of us charged at Mephiles from three different directions. Fast as lightning, the demon sidestepped Sonic, kicked Shadow in the ribs, and head butted me. I fell on my rear, holding my nose, Shadow fell as well, and Sonic continued fighting. Mephiles lashed out with his claws, clipping Sonic's arm. The demon kicked Sonic, who fell onto the marble staircase. Mephiles walked over to Sonic and continued beating him. He lifted the blue hedgehog and threw him into the temple. The blue hedgehog landed on a metal brazier, breaking it.

Mephiles turned towards me. Using the last of my energy, I used my psychic powers to shove him into the stairs. He stood back up, seemingly unaffected and walked over to me. Mephiles picked me up by the collar of my dress shirt. "Any last words before I kill you?"

"Yeah," Sonic said from behind Mephiles. "Ain't irony a bitch?" Sonic plunged the shard of the broken metal brazier into the demon's back. Mephiles' hand released me and went to his chest, where the sharp tip of the blackened metal protruded. Mephiles lurched forward and fell on his face. A pool of his black blood spread around him. His body slowly lost its integrity and melted.

Shadow clipped his inhibitor rings back on and walked over to the others. I sat down with the others and rested against one of the pillars.

"C'mon guys, let's go home," Sonic beckoned, scooping up the drained chaos emeralds and holding the green one to teleport us back to Seaside hill. We all got up and stood around Sonic. I picked up Blaze bridal-style and stood next to the blue hedgehog as well.

The Chaos Emerald's radiant green light surrounded us. The black and white marble of Soleanna blurred into the white sand and crystal clear water of Seaside hill. Everyone gathered around us spouting question concerning the details of what the hell happened. No one really answered. We just kinda shouldered our way through the crowd of friends and family.

"Blaze! Thank God you're all right!" Her mother cried.

"Yes, Mom, I'm fine. You don't need to cry," Blaze said quietly. "Silver, you can put me down now; I can stand on my own,"

Slightly embarrassed, I set her down, but left my hand around her waist.

"So, now what're we gonna do?" Joseph, one of the few people that weren't crowding us, asked.

"Well, and I'm just shooting ideas off the top of my head, I was thinking about getting married to Blaze," I said.

"But you can't be married looking like that!" Blaze's mom protested. "Your clothes are in ruins!" She was right. The five of us looked like we were tied to the back of a train and dragged cross-country.

"I suppose you're right," I grudgingly agreed. That thing I want, much less need is to strike up an argument over something avoidable. Blaze, however, managed to remain relatively unscathed. "I guess we won't be married just yet.


	16. Chapter 16

A/N: Thank you, Crazy Muffin Assassin for editing and proofreading. The only reason this chapter exists and Silver and Blaze aren't getting married immediately, is because I think it's a little silly to have two chapters about roughly the same thing right next to each other.

Blaze's POV

I hate irony. We survived fighting Mephiles only to have the wedding postponed due to our ruined clothing. My mood, already bad from being kidnapped, only got worse. As naïve as he is, Silver noticed my anxiety and held my hand.

"It's gonna be okay, Blaze. We'll be married soon enough," he murmured, smiling. How does he do it? No matter what, he can always put on a smile. In the bleakest of situations, in the darkest of times, in the face of adversity, at least he can still smile.

I looked away. "I know. I just wish we could be married and alone. Just you and me for two weeks."

"Don't worry about it. We'll be relaxing by the ocean, at the Cliffs of Moher in no time." Silver kissed me lightly and gave my hand an affectionate squeeze.

"Hey, glad ta see ya guys're all right. Ya know, I almos' got married once," Joseph said, walking over to us. He was one of the few who didn't crowd us upon arrival.

"What happened? Dropping a little too much acid in Las Vegas?" I asked sarcastically.

He laughed briefly. "Nah, I don't do drugs. Nasty business, they are. We had ta fire a drummer over them. I mean, they help ya write great music, but still. Anyways, she was a waitress in a restaurant, beautiful, foxy thing, she was."

Now I was interested. "What happened?" I asked, my ears perking up.

"Well, back when we were a small band, openin' up fer headliners like Shallow Violet, Steel Dirigible, The How and other rockin' bands, our truck broke down, so we had ta stop there." He paused to clean his sunglasses. "We didn't have much money, about ten pounds between us, so she treated us to a meal. The boys and I figured the least we could do was invite her ta one of our concerts."

"And everything went downhill from there?" I guessed.

"Nah, uphill. Our hotel room was on the fifth floor."

"Of course, typical rock star," Silver snorted.

"So... you had a one night stand and asked her to marry you?" I asked.

"Nah, we dated fer a while, she tagged along on a couple 'a tours, and _then_ I asked her ta marry me."

"So why aren't you married now? Get cold feet or something? Divorce?"

"Damn, I wish, mate. She left me standin' at the alter and made off with the ring."

I wasn't quite sure what to say. What do you say to a guy who was left at the alter, especially a guy you don't know well at all? Silver, being naïve as he was, and just a guy in general summed up the whole story in three words. "That sucks, dude."

He smiled. "Yeah, but don't worry; you guys're gonna be happy together,"

"Thanks, Joseph, it means a lot." Silver stood a bit closer to me.

"Well, that's my two cents; I'll leave ya guys alone now." He put his hands in the pockets of his ripped jeans and walked off.

I hope I'm never that emotionally detached to talk about something terrible like that like it's nothing.

Shadow's POV

It's the same old song and dance. When the five of us returned, Silver, Blaze, and Sonic were immediately swarmed by the others. Sky and I were left relatively alone. For me, this is old hat. When I defeated Black Doom and destroyed the Black Comet, the news crews and reporters went to Sonic and the others. Sure, they passed the majority of the credit onto me, but still, nothing. I'm not saying I want to live in the limelight and be constantly followed by reporters, but a little credit where credit is due would be nice.

I sat down on a hill overlooking the beach, a good twenty yards from everyone else. Uh-oh, Joseph is walking my direction. Pretending not to notice, I ripped a strip of my ruined dress shirt and tied it around a gash on my arm. As I was pulling the knot tight with my teeth, the black fox approached me.

"Ey, Jonny, how ya feelin'?" he greets me, grinning.

"Stop calling me that. I just spent the last hour or so being a demon's punching bag; how would you feel?" I scoffed.

"Dude, ya ever hear the sayin' ya get more with honey than with vinegar? It would do ya some good if ya listened to it. So, what're ya gonna do now?"

I was perplexed. "What do you mean?"

"I mean Sky, mate. Ya got the perfect opportunity." Joseph rolled his eyes.

"What, with all those people over there near her?" I ripped another portion of my shirt off and used it to bandage my remaining wounds.

"She's sitting by herself, mate," Joseph pointed out, his eyebrow twitching irritably.

"But there are other people there! I can't just…" I stopped talking when I realized how stupid I sounded.

A small smile spread across Joseph's face. "Jonny, are you _scared_ to talk to her?"

"No. Don't be an idiot." I frowned.

"Okay, then, if ya don't wanna make a public display of it, then you'll hafta do it in private."

"Okay, so I go and say I want to talk to her alone?"

"No, ya hafta be suave an' charismatic. Ya can't just go up an' say it to 'er, ya hafta go up an' show her what yer made of. Shake her foundations, ya know? Use swagger."

Swagger?

"So, I just go and say it?" I repeated.

Joseph groaned. "Dude, if you couldn't kill me, I would slap you. Ya know, all my advice made a whistlin' sound when it went over yer head. Go up to her, tell her ya wanna talk to her in private, an' be confident about it."

Heaving a huge sigh, I hoisted myself off of the ground and started walking down the hill. I took a deep breath and made my way over to Sky.

"Hey," I said quietly. _Hey,_ I scolded myself. _You can't come up with anything better than that?_

Fortunately for me, Sky looked up and smiled. "Hi, Shadow. What's up?"

_Be confident, Shadow. Suave and charismatic._ "W-well, I wanted to talk to you." _Close enough._

"About...?"

"I was wondering if-"

"Hey, Sky, Jonny, how're ya guys doin'?" Joseph popped out of nowhere and put his arm on my shoulder. "D'you mind if I borrow Jonny fer a minute?"

"Nope, not at all," Sky said, looking confused.

We started walking away.

"What are you doing?" I growled once we were out of earshot.

Joseph snorted, "Savin' yer ass. Ya can't talk ta girls ta save yer life."

"I was doing fine," I contradicted, frowning.

"Fine fer a seventh grader." The black fox retorted, rolling his eyes.

"Well if you're so smart then what would you do?" I growl, my frustration starting to build.

Joseph took another moment to clean his glasses. "Well, I would go up to her, take her by the hand, an' take her someplace private. Simple as that."

"Forget it. This is getting stupid. I'll ask her some other time."

Joseph called after me, but I just ignored him. I need something to get my mind off of Sky. Eventually, I decided to go for a run.

It's almost funny how everything you see reminds you of what you're trying to take you're mind off of. Running through the city, I saw several couples kissing, someone proposing to his girlfriend, and a few couples just on dates. It makes me sick; people everywhere are falling in love, while I'm too cowardly to even talk to a girl.

I sat down on one of the benches in the park. Silver and Blaze's wedding still won't be for another few days at the least, so I doubt I'll miss anything important while I wallow in self-pity.

Sky's POV

Where is Shadow running off to now? Was it something I did? Oh, wait, here comes Joseph, maybe he can tell me where Shadow went.

"Joseph! Why did Shadow leave?" I demanded.

"Oh, um, his sista' called…an' needed his advice…about music…fer a party she's throwin'. Yeah, an' I told'em to put in a good word fer us." I watched him closely as he spoke. He wouldn't make eye contact, and his hands were twitching.

"You're lying!" I accused, grabbing him by the front of his t-shirt and raising a fist. "Tell me the truth!"

"Please, not the sunglasses!" Joseph pleaded. His hands rose to shield his face.

"Then tell me what I wanna know!" Other people started to look over at us.

"Alright, alright. He…he wanted me ta help 'em…ask ya out," he answered ruefully. "I was teachin' him how ta be charismatic and stuff. He left 'cause he couldn't get to the point."

"I see." _Shadow wants to ask me out? Hmm..._ After pondering for a moment, I spoke again. "Here's the thing; you're gonna help me to get Shadow. Shadow's not one to be open about his feelings, so we'll just have to trick him."

A sly grin spread across the fox's face, replacing his frightened expression. "Now _that's_ more my style."

"Here's the plan…" _…Fifteen minutes later, _Shadow's POV

Fifteen uneventful minutes of sitting and staring at clouds passed. Several people walked by, giving me pitiful looks. One person stopped over and gave me a dollar. I'm guessing I look homeless because of my tattered clothing and disheveled appearance.

"Jonny! Jonny, there ya are! I've been lookin' all over the city fer ya!" Joseph ran over to me, panting.

"What's wrong now?" I asked indifferently.

"It's Sky, mate; I saw 'er with another guy!"

"What?" I curl my lip, my hands tightening into fists at my side.

"Yeah! She was holdin' hands with that blue hedgehog. Can't remember his name though."

I grimaced. That's such a typical Sonic thing to do. It's like he knows exactly what to do to piss me off.

"I'm going to go put a stop to it," I growled, standing and running back to Seaside Hill.

"'Ey! Wait fer me, ya prick!" Joseph called after me.

I reached Seaside Hill in seconds. Everybody was down on the beach except for Sonic and Sky. After a bit of searching, I found the two of the sitting on one of the bluffs overlooking the sea, and, get this, _holding hands_.

"What the hell is this?" I snarled loudly.

Sky turned around and immediately dropped Sonic's hand.

"Hey, Shads, how's it goin'?" Sonic greets me cheerfully with a nonchalant wave.

"Don't you 'hey, Shads' me. What the hell are you doing with Sky?" I asked harshly, gritting my teeth.

Sonic remained perfectly calm. "What do you care what I'm doin' with Sky?"

"She's my friend; I don't want her to have to put up with you," I growled through clenched teeth.

"A friend? Is that _all_ she is to you?" he teased, his green eyes twinkling with amusement.

"What exactly are you insinuating?" I snarled.

"What exactly are you hiding?" Sonic retorted. Unconsciously, my hand clenched into a fist and my mouth twisted into a sneer. He is the most infuriating hedgehog I've ever had the displeasure of meeting.

"I'm not hiding anything," I grumbled, trying to maintain my composure and keep from beating him.

"You sure about that? You're not making eye contact." Is he pushing me, or is he just stupid? It's like he wants to get his arse kicked; Mephiles wasn't enough of a "challenge."

"I don't have to make eye contact with you, you-"

"Shadow, you don't have to shout," Sky intervened quietly, rising up. "Calm down."

"No," I scoffed. "I don't have to put up with this." I started to walk away.

"Shadow, wait!" Sky called after me.

"No, I'm not going to wait. You can go make out with Faker if you want, but don't ask me to watch." I turned and walked off, not caring in the slightest.

Sky ran in front of me and halted my progress.

"You're too damn stubborn for your own good!" she snapped, though she didn't sound as mad as she looked.

"Tell me something I don't know." I mumbled. I really didn't like arguing with her. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sonic slink off towards the others. _Too cowardly to finish your battles, Faker?_

Sky thought for moment. Apparently I said something thought provoking.

"Okay, I will," Sky spoke softly. "I don't like Sonic. He's a cool guy and all, but I don't like him."

I only stare at her in surprise. _Then why was she holding hands with him?_

"I want to talk to you in private," she continued. "Meet me by the bluff tonight."

"Uh…Okay." I didn't quite know what to say; she just kind of sprang on me with all that she just said.

Sky's POV

Shadow stuttered out an answer and walked off to where everyone else was. As soon as he left, Joseph arrived and started questioning me.

"So, did it work?" he asked. His eyes lit up like an excited little kid.

"Yes…and no," I responded, still staring at the spot Shadow stood before.

"Whaddya mean?" Joseph asked. "Did it work or didn't it?"

"Oh no, it worked; just not according to plan." I shrugged.

"Sweet, mate! Plannin's overrated anyways!" He is so excitable. I wonder what he's like when he decides to act serious. "So, what's the plan now? Can I help?"

"Why do you care about this anyways?" I asked him, raising an eyebrow. "This has nothing to do with you."

He told me the story about how he got left at the alter. How could such a nice guy be kicked in the teeth like that? Sure he's a rock star that's had about a million one-night stands, but he's a great guy once you get to know him.

"Gosh, no, you've done more for me than you could ever know. I owe you," I told him.

"Forget about it. You an' Jonny daserve ta be happy; everyone does."

"Still, thanks dude, if there's anything I could do for you…"

Joseph took off his sunglasses and wiped the lenses on his t-shirt. "Don't mention it." He smiled.


	17. Chapter 17

A/N: I'm sorry for taking such a long time to write this. I've been really busy lately, so I haven't had much time to write.

Silver's POV

The sun began to set and its light reflected off the crystal clear water, gently caressing Blaze's face. Her hand slowly intertwined with mine, and her skin felt like a velvet glove. She gazed at me with her beautiful golden eyes and I could tell exactly what she was thinking. A soft shiver ran up my spine.

Isn't in funny how you can communicate with people just by looking at them?

Blaze leaned in closer to me. I caught a hint of her perfume: vanilla and jasmine. Her lips brushed against mine, and I shivered again.

"Cold, Silver?" she asked jokingly. Her eyes, shining like the full moon, stared lovingly into mine.

"N-no," I stuttered. It's such an amazing feeling. Blaze makes me feel nervous but also completely calm. Only she can do that to me.

I leaned in and our lips were about to touch again, but we were interrupted.

"Hey, Silver," Sonic asked. "Excuse me for interrupting, but where are we gonna go from here? We can't exactly stay on the beach all night."

"Yeah, I know. Tell everyone to come to the beach; I'll take it from there."

"You got it." Sonic disappeared in a flash of blue and a small cloud of sand.

Shadow's POV

The sun's finally set. I started walking in the direction of the bluff that Sky and I decided to meet at. Sky was already there, shuffling back and forth nervously while waiting for me.

"Sky," I said. "I'm here. What did you want to talk about?"

"I wanted to talk about, well, us."

We both sat on the edge of the cliff and let our feet dangle.

"I…oh, screw it, I'm just going to say it! I…like you…a lot. How do you feel about me?" she asked, turning away from me.

I noticed how she held her breath as she waited for my response. I took a deep breath while formulating my response.

"I…I like you too," I answered quietly, my cheeks beginning to burn.

Sky breathed a sigh of relief. Her demeanor changed from timid and nervous to slightly seductive and more open.

"Well then, if we both like each other, then why are we talking?" she asked coyly, a seductive smile creeping across her face. Her arms slowly snaked around my neck and pulled me down to her height. Her eyes slowly closed, but mine stayed wide open.

Our lips were just about to touch, when we heard footsteps walking in our direction.

"Shadow! Sky! Where are you guys?" It was Silver. We jumped to our feet and hide behind a nearby tree.

_Damn you, Murphy_, I thought bitterly.

Just when Silver was about to discover us, another person walked over. "Oi, Silver, whaddaya doin'? Joseph asked.

"I'm looking for Shadow and Sky. Have you seen them?"

"Sky and Jonny? Yeah, I'm saw 'em walkin' over to the east, that way."

"Ok, thanks Joseph." Silver's footsteps faded in the distance as he followed Josephs' false trail.

"That should give ya a few minutes, guys. Make it quick!" Joseph whispered to us.

"Thanks Joseph, we owe you!" Sky whispered back.

"Don' mention it, guys." Joseph cleaned his glasses, his usual gesture after doing something particularly helpful, and walked back to the beach.

Sky's attention turned back to me. When her lips met mine, it felt like I was kissing an electrical socket, but without the pain. Blood rushed to my head and blue sparks shot from our contact like miniature fireworks.

I suddenly began to feel self-conscious. Her lips were soft and delicate; mine were rough, cracked and probably very uncomfortable to kiss. And yet, Sky didn't seem to mind.

Then I started to feel woozy. Her lips were like a sedative. I stumbled and took a step back, inadvertently breaking the kiss.

"Whoa," Sky murmured, staring at my mouth with wide eyes.

"We should probably head back to the beach; Silver will be looking for us." I said. Sky slowly snapped out of her trance and we walked down to the others.

"Where have you been?" Blaze demanded, the instant we were in earshot. "Silver's been looking all over for you!"

"We got lost," I stated simply. I noticed a few disbelieving glances, but as of a few minutes ago, I care even less than usual.

"Blaze, it doesn't matter. They're here now." Silver intervened. "Obviously, Blaze and I won't be married today, so we'll just try again in a few days."

"That's it, Pointy? Yer just gonna give up because that Mephiles bloke hates yer guts?" Marine spoke up.

"Um, in case you haven't noticed, we're all a little battered and our clothes are more or less ruined."

"So? If ya love each other, then why bother with fancy clothes? When I marry, I'm doin' it in shorts an' a t-shirt! Jus' put the damn ring on her finger and kiss 'er!"

"She's got a point, mate," Joseph chimed in.

"Believe me, I would do all the things you're suggesting in a heartbeat, but I want to do it properly, for Blaze."

"Well, are we going to stand here arguing about how Silver's going to marry Blaze, or are we actually going to do it?" I asked. Everyone just stared at me like I had three heads.

After an uncomfortable silence, Sonic spoke up. "Ya know, I think I actually agree with Faker, for once. Why we all just go home and get some rest?"

"Wow Sonic, that's actually a good idea," Blaze conceded.

"I have my moments," Sonic said defensively.

"So we'll all just go home like nothing happened?" Knuckles asked, trying to make sense of everything. Silver and Blaze both nodded in confirmation.

Then, we all started walking in the general direction of the city.

Silver's POV

I took a moment to take in the last few glimpses of the sunset as we left. I looked back and I saw Shadow and Sky holding hands and walking closely together, just like Blaze and myself. A small smile snuck its way onto my face.

"What are you smiling about, Silver?" Blaze asked. I gestured for her to look behind us. She smiled too.

…The next day…

I woke up feeling all the aches and pain I didn't feel yesterday. Blaze was still was sleeping. She's so beautiful when she's sleeping. We were planning on renting a few more tuxes today, but I just don't have the heart to wake her up. I guess I'll just be doing it by myself.

Somebody was really anxious to see us, because there were several sharp knocks to the door. When I opened the door, I saw something completely unexpected.

A black fox, being mauled by several girls, was writhing on the front lawn.

"Oi, Silver! Can ya gimme a hand, mate?" Joseph shouted. I rolled my eyes and used my psychic powers to pry the girls off of Joseph.

"Go home, girls." Reluctantly, and one by one, they left. I extended a hand and helped Josephup.

"Thanks, mate. You really got me out of a jam," Joseph said, dusting himself off. He picked up a few bags that had been lying on the ground next to him. His leather jacket was more beat up, his jeans were a little more ripped than usual, and one of the lenses in his glasses was cracked.

"I know I'm probably going to regret it, but what put you in a position to be attacked by girls like that?"

"Well, I went to the mall an' they recognized me. Simple as that," the fox shrugged.

"What did you go to the mall for?"

"I was pickin' up a few tuxedos fer you guys. I figured it was the least I could do fer ya."

I sighed. "You didn't have to do that."

"Consider it a weddin' present." Joseph glanced down at his battered wristwatch. "Well, mate, I gotta be goin'." He wiped his glasses on his shirt before turning and walking away.

"And mate," Joseph started. "Treat 'er well. She really loves ya."

A/N: Personally, I don't think this is my best work either. The next chapter will be better.


	18. Chapter 18

A/N: Thank you Crazy Muffin Assassin, for proofreading and editing, and thank you Cometflight525, for being the kick in the pants I needed to finish writing this chapter. Can you believe it's been a little over a year since I started this story? At any rate, I'll be writing one more chapter after this one to conclude my story. I would sincerely like to thank each and every one of my fans and readers. I don't own the song Any Time At All.

Silver's POV

…_Two days later…_

Today started at a bit of a low note in that I woke up to find that Blaze wasn't there. Things immediately looked up when I recalled the reason why she wasn't with me right now.

I thought about Blaze while I was getting ready. I'm just so anxious to see her. I buttoned the first button of my tuxedo jacket and headed for the beach.

The weather was beautiful. As far as I could see there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The trees in the forest by the beach were sturdy and the leaves were lush and green. It made everything seem vital and full of life. The grass and trees ended abruptly, yielding to white sand and clear blue water.

The rest of the guys were already at the beach. As soon as I walked over, people stated talking to me, wishing me well and such.

"How does the tux fit, mate?" Joseph asked.

"Fits fine," I said.

"Nervous?"

"Kinda, I just want it to hurry up and happen."

"Don't worry; you'll be in Ireland before ya know it." Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a few of the girls arriving.

"So, Silver, ready to get married?" my sister asked jokingly. I just nodded. Ok, so maybe I lied. Maybe I'm very nervous. What if something else goes wrong today? What then? Maybe the first time not working was a bad omen.

"Silver, are you feeling alright?" Sky asked.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine."

"Well, you don't look fine to me. Maybe you should lie down."

"I said I'm fine!" I snapped. Sky cringed.

"Calm down, mate. Yer bein' paranoid."

I took a deep breath, several actually, but they didn't help much. Why can't I calm down? God, if Blaze could see me now…

Blaze's POV

"Blaze, dear, what's wrong?" my mother asked.

"Nothing," I said. "Just nervous, I guess." Unfortunately, my mother's smart enough to know when something's bothering me and when I'm lying.

Just as I thought, my mother picked up on my lie. "Blaze, if something's bothering you, leaving it alone most certainly won't help."

"Ok," I sighed. "It's Silver."

"Has Silver been mistreating you? Because if he isn't good to you, you should-"

"No, mom, it's just he hasn't been himself the last couple of days. Like last night. See, his feet always get cold, so I put mine on top of them to keep them warm and he pulled away. He never does that."

"Perhaps he's just nervous for today?" the older cat suggested.

"I hope that's it," I said, looking down.

My mom's hand brushed against my cheek and she put on a hopeful smile. "It doesn't suit you to look so sad; today's your wedding day after all."

It took a lot of effort, but I managed to smile too.

Silver's POV

"Silver, I think I know how ta help ya," Joseph proclaimed. "Lie down."

"What?" I asked. I figured lying down on the sand wouldn't do much good for the tuxedo, so I resisted. "Here?"

"No, mate, in Timbuktu. Of course here!" Reluctantly, I got down and lay on my back.

"Now close yer eyes," the fox instructed. "This werked wonders when we were on the verge of insanity durin' tours." Suddenly, Joseph's method didn't seem very legitimate.

"What seems to be yer problem?" Joseph asked, restating the obvious question.

"Nothing. I'm fine." Or, at least, I was. I felt a swift kick, from a size eight high top shoe right under my ribs.

"What t-the hell was th-that for?" I sputtered, in an attempt to get my breath back.

"That was fer lyin', mate. Now what's yer problem?" I hesitated a little before answering; I wasn't sure if I was going to get kicked again.

"I-I'm just nervous, I guess," I said finally. I tensed up just in case Joseph was going to kick me again.

"An' why're ya nervous? Is it about Blaze, or getting' married in general?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "I just feel terrible."

"Silver, I think I know what yer problem is. D'you want the good news or the bad news?"

"The bad news," I said on impulse.

"The bad news is yer in love. Up ta yer neck in it."

That confused me. How is that bad news? "What's the good news?"

"Blaze loves ya just as much as ya love her. Ya don't have anythin' to worry about."

"Yes, but what if something else goes wrong? What if-"

"Mate, don't worry about it. If anythin' goes wrong, it's cause ya worried about it. Trust me, I've been through all 'a this,"

"I suppose you're right," I sighed.

Joseph wiped his glasses on the corner of his shirt. "I usually am. Now let's get ya married."

That was about when I found myself standing at the alter. Angus was playing the wedding march and all the people in the wedding were already around the alter too. Blaze's father walked my soon-to-be wife up the aisle.

The preacher cleared his throat. "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here on this fine day to join these two lovers, Silver and Blaze, in the eternal light of holy matrimony. If anyone has a just reason why these two should not be married, speak now or forever hold your peace."

Once again, no one said a word. The only audible sounds were the waves of the ocean lapping on the beach and my heart beating.

"Silver," the preacher prompted. "Do you take Blaze to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

"I, Silver, take you, Blaze, to be my wife, my partner in life, and my one true love. I will cherish our friendship and love you today, tomorrow, and forever. I will trust you and honor you. I will laugh with you and cry with you. I will love you faithfully through the best and the worst, through the difficult and the easy. Whatever may come, I will always be there. As I have given you my hand to hold, I give my life to keep, so help me God," I took her left hand and slipped the wedding band on her finger.

The preacher turned to Blaze. "Blaze, do you take Silver to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

"I, Blaze, take you, Silver, to be my husband, my partner in life, and my one true love. I will cherish our friendship and love you today, tomorrow, and forever. I will trust you and honor you. I will laugh with you and cry with you. I will love you faithfully through the best and the worst, through the difficult and the easy. Whatever may come, I will always be there. As I have given you my hand to hold, I give my life to keep, so help me God," Blaze delicately grasped my hand put the matching wedding band on my left ring finger.

The preacher turned back to me. "You may now kiss the bride."

Tentatively, I lifted the veil and tucked it behind her ear. Her golden eyes were full of love. Slowly, I leaned in to kiss her. The closer we became, the heavier my eyelids seemed to become. Blaze's hand brushed up against the side of my face and our lips finally met. The feeling of her lips on mine was pure heaven. People cheered. Someone whistled. We broke away and turned to the crowd. Blaze's mom was crying, as were a few other people.

"I-I promised myself I w-wasn't gonna cry, mate!" Angus sobbed. Joseph had tears rolling down from under his sunglasses. Even Shadow cracked a smile.

Blaze turned, putting her back to the crowd, and threw the bouquet over her shoulder. All the girls sprang up in a desperate attempt to catch the flowers. Instead, the flowers landed in an absent-minded Shadow's lap.

Everyone stopped and stared at Shadow, as they all knew the superstition behind catching the bride's bouquet. "Mate, yer next!" Joseph exclaimed. Shadow dropped the bouquet as though it was on fire.

"So, how 'bout that dance, guys?" Joseph asked. The band got up and walked over to the amps and drum kit. Joseph took off his leather jacket and tossed it back to his seat.

Blaze grasped my left hand in her right and moved my right hand to her waist. A shiver ran up my spine.

The music started to play. The song we picked was one of our favorites and just one of those songs that can appeal to anyone. It started with a beautiful three-part harmony from Scratch, Joseph and Paul. "Any time at all. Any time at all. Any time at all, all ya gotta do is call and I'll be there,"

We started dancing; a fast waltz. I had so many thoughts racing around my head that Blaze had to lead. Hopefully no one will notice.

Joseph started singing gently, his voice full of emotion and benevolence. "If ya need somebody to love, just look into my eyes. I'll be there to make ya feel right. If yer feeling sorry and sad, I'd really sympathize. Don't be sad just call me tonight."

We swayed back and forth, not really focusing on dancing; we were much more interested in each other's eyes. Everything around us blurred into a single frame. All that mattered was that we were finally married.

"Any time at all. Any time at all. Any time at all, all ya gotta do is call, and I'll be there. If the sun has faded away, I'll try to make it shine; there is nothing I won't do. If you need a shoulder ta cry on, I hope it will be mine. Call me tonight, and I'll come to you."

Blaze pressed her body up against mine. Her head rested on my shoulder. I could feel her breath on my neck. I started to squirm a bit. Her touch was making me crazy.

Finally, the song ended. Everyone clapped and cheered. Blaze's arms found their way around my neck and her lips found their way to mine.

I picked up Blaze, bridal style and carried her down the beach. The others subsequently got up and followed us back to our house. I stopped when we came to the front door.

"This is it," I whispered to Blaze. "Are you ready?" Blaze nodded. I opened the door and stepped over the threshold. Now it's official. We've taken our first steps into our home as a married couple.

I carried her up the stairs to our room. We got the luggage out from the closet and started packing for our honeymoon in Ireland.

_Later, in Ireland…_

"This looks like the place," I said to Blaze. We stood in front of a large brick building. "The Bellbridge House Hotel." I held the door open for her and carried our suitcases in after. We walked through the lobby and over to the counter.

"Good evening. How may I help you?" said the person at the check-in desk.

"Yes. We're here to check in."

"Ok, what name is the reservation under?"

"Mr. and Mrs. Silver the Hedgehog." The attendant reached under the counter and pulled out an old-fashioned hotel room key.

"Here's your key. Room thirty-seven, second to last room on the left." The room was immaculate. There were rose petals on the bed and a bottle of wine on the nightstand. We had our hands all over each other before we made through the door. Blaze gave me a fairly rough shove and pushed me onto the bed. She closed the door behind her and locked it, grinning slyly.

She climbed on top of me like a predator capturing its prey and began unbuttoning my shirt. Her hands ran up and down my body as she kissed my neck. I was helpless. There wasn't a thing I could do to protest what she was doing. I bit my lip as her hands caressed my body.

Blaze drew back and started undressing herself. She tucked her thumb under her bra-strap and slowly pulled it down her shoulder. "Like what you see, Silver?" Blazed unzipped my pants and tugged them down. She started kissing me again. The room started to heat up. I could feel her heartbeat on my chest.

Blaze stopped kissing and put her mouth by my ear. "Silver, I love you," Blaze whispered.

"I love you too, Blaze."

A/N: There you have it. All that's left to write is the epilogue.


	19. Epilouge

A/N: Thank you, Crazy Muffin Assassin for proofreading and editing.

Silver's POV

_Approximately one year later…_

The last year of my life has been one of the utmost happiness, albeit a bit short on action. The incident with Mephiles was the last major catastrophic event to happen. Since then, nothing severely life threatening happened. The only danger I've been seeing as of late are the new _Panther McMillan_ detective novels I've been reading. Although, I can't say I'm unhappy with not being in constant danger, a little action every once in a while certainly wouldn't hurt. Dr. Eggman would pop up occasionally, but Sonic could usually take care of him by himself.

Speaking of which, we saw Sonic and the others from time to time; Sky dropped by periodically too. We even saw Joseph and the band before the start of their new tour, a few months ago. Since then, we haven't done much.

It just so happened that Sky decided to drop by today. "To what do we owe this unexpected visit?" I asked, standing in front of the front door.

"I just thought I'd come by and say hello, seeing as how I'd be in the area," she responded. I invited her in and we walked over to the couch.

"How've you and Shadow been lately?" I asked.

"We've been fine, but Shadow took a bullet in Milan on G.U.N. business, and he'll have his arm in a sling until his collarbone heals. I was just on my way to pick him up at the airport." Knowing Shadow, he'll ditch his sling the first chance he gets; he hates listening to people.

"Shouldn't you be going then? I mean, you wouldn't want Shadow to wait long." Blaze suggested. I cringed. It always starts with a comment like that. Someone says something with a rude implication, and before you know it, it's a full-blown shouting match.

I mentally braced for impact. "His flight won't get in for another forty-five minutes." I exhaled; crisis averted. She took it better than I thought she would.

"So, how have you and Blaze been doing, Silver?"

"We," I cleared my throat. "We've been doing great. I mean, nothing really dangerous or life threatening has happened lately, so we haven't been doing much."

"Silver, dear, could you go fetch the mail?" Blaze asked. I got up off the couch and walked over to the front porch. The weather was actually very nice today. The sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in sight. All the flowers were in bloom and the birds were chirping.

I opened the tin box sitting on the railing and pulled out its contents. I flipped through the various envelopes, looking for anything out of the ordinary junk mail. One letter, with messy, nearly illegible handwriting, caught my attention. I stood a moment, trying to read the writing before giving up.

"Blaze, what do you make of this?" I asked as I walked back inside, handing her the letter. She looked over the letter, carefully deciphering the garbled handwriting.

"It's from Joseph," She said, after several minutes of squinting. She opened the envelope and began the read the letter. Fortunately, the letter inside was typed, and much easier to read. "Dear Silver, Blaze, and Sky, me and my girlfriend Victoria are getting married, and you guys are invited. Our big day is the twenty-fourth of March, in Camden Lock, London. They're plane tickets included, so you guys don't have to worry about getting there. See you guys in March. Sincerely, Joseph and Victoria."

My jaw dropped. Joseph, possibly the craziest, most spontaneous, craziest person I've ever met, is tying the knot. "Jeez," I said. "We better pack."

A/N: At this point, I think it's rather obvious that there will be a sequel. That being said, I won't start posting it for a few months, as I'll need time to plan it out so I can write it quickly and efficiently.

At this point, I'd also like to thank each and every one of my readers for the 10,000 plus total hits, numerous reviews, and overall support. In addition, I'd like to thank Crazy Muffin Assassin, whose help was absolutely invaluable in the writing process of this story.

Thank you.


End file.
